I'm here now, I guess
by iloveashandquinn
Summary: Ailene MacDonald was minding her own business when she was thrust into the world of a tv-show her friend liked. Faced with daily threats of the walking dead and even some terrible people, she thought herself pretty useless. With her humour and unexpected skills, she bumbles her way through a scary world, forming relationships, saving lives and surprising even herself (Daryl/OC)
1. Chapter 1

**A/N So I've been _finally_ watching the walking dead and obviously like so many others, I've fallen in love with Daryl. I thought I'd give him an OC, and my friend from Ireland gave me perfect idea so that is what has accumulated in this story. It will follow the basis of the show running, but some of the timings of events might be spread out to allow me to insert days/scenes that didn't happen in the show. Rated for language, violence and probably eventual romance. **

**I hope you enjoy this one, I'm nervous about it- let me know what you think in the reviews!**

 **(Super long chapters to start with as I'm trying to establish the character and her place in the group- more action will follow eventually!)**

* * *

Ailene MacDonald was sat at her desk, marking the test papers from the practice test her Sixth years had just sat. She was feeling extremely sleepy and no amount of coffee seemed to stem her exhaustion, it was the end of a very long term, and Ailene was looking forward to her Easter break.

Sighing, she moved onto the papers from her third years. Ailene didn't know when she fell asleep, but soon she was in a feverous sleep, and had a strangling nightmare. She saw the world end, people dying and then rising to eat whatever survivors were left, it was like some kind of zombie apocalypse film or that tv show Clare always watched. Ailene slowly felt herself come out of the dream that had made her overheat, sweat prickling at the back of her neck. She mentally cursed her best friend for making them watch the first episode of The Walking Dead the night before, even if it did star the cute guy out of Love Actually, she knew she'd have nightmares.

It took her a moment to open her eyes, she was disorientated, it didn't feel like she was at her desk, it actually felt like she was on dewy grass. Finally she blinked her eyes open, and nearly jumped out of her skin. Staring down at her, was a large group of people, all looking like they'd been through hell.

"Holy shit" she blurted, "why the feck are you creeping up on people like that?" she sat up, her head thumping like she'd been drinking for three days straight. Had she been drinking for three days straight? Is that why she was in the middle of a field, "Jesus Christ, that must have been quite a sesh" she looked around at the people, they looked extremely confused, "where the fuck am I?"

"Er" A man, who looked strangely familiar piped up, "a field in Georgia, just shy of Atlanta"

"Where?!" she frowned, recognising the accent as American south, "in America?"

"Erm yeah" the man, whom she was slowly realising was Andrew Lincoln, replied.

"Why are you doing an American accent?" she frowned, "you're fucking English!"

"You know me?" he looked blank, peering at her as if trying to recognise her.

"Yeah" she nodded, "You're Andrew Lincoln, the actor!" she laughed so hard, "you're in that film Love Actually, and then this weird zombie show my friend Clare likes" then realisation dawned on her, she must still be dreaming, "its okay- this is all a dream, this fits with my nightmare"

"Erm this is real" he frowned, "and I'm Rick, not Andrew" he sighed, "I'm a cop… was a cop" he looked around at the group, Ailene mirrored it, they were all exchanging concerned and puzzled looks.

"Alright, where's Clare?" she sighed, with a laugh, "is she punishing me because I didn't like that zombie show?" Ailene looked around, trying to peer through the legs of the group.

"Sweetheart I don't know what you're talking about?" a pretty woman with short hair stepped forward, to hold onto her hand.

"I was asleep at my desk and then I wake up here" Ailene gestured around her, "I must be on your set or something"

"Set?" the woman, frowned, "sweetie, you're in the real world, this is it- the z-zombie thing, its real"

"This can't be real?" Ailene desperately looked around at the people who were sadly nodding at her, she frowned and scrambled to her feet, "Nope this isn't real, it's some kind of sick joke, I'm a history teacher from Cork!"

"Where?" Andrew who said he was Rick asked her.

"IRELAND!" she yelled, storming off towards the road.

"You can't go out there!" he yelled back at her, "its dangerous!"

"Okay but I can do whatever the fuck I want!" she yelled, "and I'm getting the bus!"

"There are no buses!" he pleaded with her.

"What do you mean?" she spun around, her heels digging into the grass.

"There are walkers out there" a young Asian man stepped towards her, "they eat humans, surely you heard about the outbreak?" Ailene rolled her eyes.

"If I thought there were any need for me to have to survive anything, do you really thing I'd be waking up thinking I was off my tits the night before, dressed like this?!" she gestured down to her heels, pencil skirt and blouse, this statement caused a man with a crossbow to snort, in what she thought might be humour.

"Erm, no" the Asian man shrank back, and she sighed, brushing a hand over her face.

"Look I'm sorry, I guess I'm just a bit disorientated" she tried to run a hand through her dark hair, snagging it on a twig, "feck" she cursed, pulling it out of her hair and throwing it on the floor.

"We understand, but there's something you've got to understand, out there" Rick had walked towards her, he pointed towards the road, "there are walkers, these zombies, and they're so dangerous"

Ailene paled, had she been thrust into the walking dead? Was this seriously happening?

"W-what?" she stammered, "I need to get home" she looked around, "I need to find my family, this isn't right, I-"

"That's not going to happen, I'm afraid" Rick looked at her with pity, "you can stay with us"

"Erm Rick?" a man with a shaved head piped up, "We should talk"

They all huddled in their group for a weird sort of team-talk, Ailene looked around, she seemed to be on some sort of farm. She was in the middle of a field that had a small camp set up with a caravan by a tree, and there was a white house off in the distance. She looked over towards the road she had been headed for and sighed, feeling her heels dig into the grass again, she bent down to take the stilettos off.

Ailene heard a rustling sound from the bushes behind her and then the muted sounds of what she could only describe as gurgling. Before she could turn around and face whatever weirdo was behind her, she felt two strong hands grasp at her shoulder's and the unmistakable smell of death overcame her. Letting out a small scream she wriggled out of the iron-clad grasp, pushing her assailant away from her.

She was faced with a dead man, except he wasn't dead, he looked like one of those things she had been watching- a walker.

Ailene's heart dropped, so it was true. She was in the walking dead.

The thing came at her once more, and before she could even think about what she was doing, she thrust the stiletto heel of her shoes right into the man's eye. It dropped to the ground immediately and Ailene gasped, she'd just killed someone in front of a police man, oh my gosh was she in trouble.

"OH MY GOD" she dropped her other shoe and spun around to face the group, they were all looking at her with expressions that probably mirrored her shocked one. "Please don't arrest me" was all she could say, before sprinting off towards some trees nearby.

This couldn't be happening.

She pulled out her phone from her cardigan pocket and looked at the display, no signal- of course. Ailene let out a cry, before slumping against the tree and falling to the ground. Was she high or something? Was this some sort of bad trip? She must still be dreaming, surely zombies didn't exist? If that were true, though, what had she just killed?

Ailene put her head in her hands, trying to prevent the tears from spilling over. Okay, so whatever had happened, this was her reality now. She was pretty sure the group thought she was mad, and there was no way that she was going to let that beat her. For however long she was going to be in this world, she had to survive until she could figure a way out- if there was one.

 _Suck it up MacDonald, get your shit together._ She thought to herself, taking a deep breath and trying to push the fact that this was all complete madness out of her mind.

"Um" came a voice from in front of her, she looked up from her hands to see Rick, "look I know you must be quite confused, but it's going to be okay" he rubbed the back of his neck, "we're not going to kick you out, welcome to the group" he gestured to the rest of the people who had gathered around them.

"I'm sorry" she sighed, gathering herself together before getting up onto her feet and plastering a smile on her face, "I'm Ailene MacDonald, I don't know what the hell has gone on, but I'm here now I guess" she looked at them, "nice to meet you all" she held out her hand to Rick and he took it warmly.

"Come on over and get some breakfast" Rick nodded towards the camp, "we can introduce everyone then" Ailene nodded and walked with the group, barefoot, and defeated.

"Here, you can have some of my sister's clothes" a blonde woman smiled to her, "you look about what her size used to be, before she got too skinny" she smiled sadly, holding out the bundle of clothes. Ailene accepted them gratefully, getting the feeling that she might never meet this woman's sister.

"Thank you, um?" she smiled to the blonde woman.

"Oh, I'm Andrea" she sighed, "what size shoes are you?"

"I-I'm a thirty-eight" she replied, Andrea frowned at her in confusion, "Oh erm I guess that's like an eight here" she shrugged.

"Perfect" Andrea shoved a pair of boots into her grasp.

"Thanks" Ailene breathed, "I guess I should go and get changed" she looked around at somewhere she could have some privacy.

"Not yet" the short haired woman rushed over to her, "you need some food in you" she steered her towards a camping chair, "come sit by me"

"You're being ever so nice to some crazy Irish woman who started yelling at you in a field" Ailene noted, to which half the group chuckled.

"Well we get it, you must be pretty confused" the pretty woman replied, "I'm Carol"

"I'm Dale" an older man, with a Hawaiian shirt and a hat on, introduced himself as he eased down into the chair next to her.

"Hi I'm Glenn" The Asian man waved from across the small fire, "and to tell you the truth I can't understand most of what you're saying" Ailene chuckled at this.

"Ha" she took the mug of tea gratefully from a beautiful long-haired woman, "I get that a lot, us Irish tend to speak quite quickly, just tell me to slow down"

"Sure thing" he smiled at her warmly and she thanked the stars that the group were friendly.

"Once we've finished breakfast, we'll head out and look for Sofia" Rick instructed them all, Ailene frowned.

"Who's Sophia?" she asked, tentatively.

"She's my daughter" Carol said quietly, "she's missing" Ailene's heart dropped, what that poor woman must be going through.

"I can help" she spoke up, without even thinking.

"You didn't even know you were in America, what makes you think you can help?" the man with the shaved head asked, bitterly.

"I'm glad you asked" she grinned, ignoring his unfriendly tone, "look I'm a school teacher, and before I taught the highers, I used to teach the first years. Part of _adventure club_ " she made quotation signs with her hands, and then look at Glenn, "don't ask" she rolled her eyes, "we used to take them out on survival weekends, and some of the little shits would always run off" Ailene took a breath, "thankfully being the youngest of four girls and having a father who wanted boys, it fell on me for him to teach me all that _manly_ (as he thought) survival stuff like tracking and survival" she rolled her eyes and picked up her mug, "anyway, I was the only one who used to find the little fuckers, and I'd always find them, always" she gave the man a pointed look and then took a sip of her funny-tasting tea.

"Do you ever stop talking?" the man asked her, an annoyed expression across his face.

"Hm" Ailene let out a breath, pretending to think, "nope, I tend to get verbal diarrhoea when I'm nervous" she replied, embarrassed.

"Great" he muttered, kicking a rock towards the fire.

"Do you really think it's a good idea for you to go out there?" Rick frowned over at her.

"Yeah" she nodded, "I'm good at finding children" Ailene frowned, "because I'm a teacher, not because I'm creepy" she blurted, Glenn laughed at her, and Rick tried to hide his smile.

"Can you shoot?" Rick asked.

"Um, no" she looked around, "I mean I guess I could shoot, just probably not well"

"That's alright, we were thinking about teaching some of the group anyway" Rick smiled at her.

"Just give me a cricket bat and I'll be good" Ailene joked, laughing "ya know like Shaun of the Dead" the all looked at her with blank expressions. "Not seen that film?" she quirked an eyebrow, and Glenn shook his head, "shame, it's pretty funny" she trailed off, looking away from their confused gazes.

 _Okay, they definitely think I'm mad._

"Anyway" Rick looked back to the shaved-headed man, "we'll probably do shooting practice tomorrow or something"

"Alright" the grumpy man, agreed.

Ailene decided it would probably be best to keep her mouth shut for the remainder of the breakfast, but this was cut short when Carol leaned over to her, speaking under her breath.

"Thank you for volunteering" she mumbled under her breath, "you didn't have to do that"

"Ah come on now" Ailene smiled at the older woman, reaching over and patting her arm, "If I can help, what sort of person would I be if I didn't?" Carol didn't say anything, just tapped her hand and smiled warmly, before looking away and back to the group. Ailene did the same, looking from the woman and accidently catching the eye of the man who had a crossbow. She gave him a weak smile, as he was eying her with a curious expression on his face, after a moment he returned the small smile and then looked away.

"Dale?" Ailene whispered to the man, who turned his attention to her with a friendly expression.

"Yes dear?"

"So who's who?" she asked, peering at the group, the man laughed at her.

"Well the woman next to Rick, that's his wife Lori" he said in a low voice, making sure their conversation didn't interrupt the one that the rest of the group were having, "their son was shot the other day" Ailene looked horrified, "he's going to be okay, he's in the house, called Carl"

"Oh thank Christ" she breathed.

"Indeed" the man sighed, "the man next to Rick is Shane" and Ailene scoffed, Dale raised an eyebrow at her.

"He's certainly friendly" she rolled her eyes, and winked at the man, who grinned back at her.

"Moving on" he chuckled softly, "you've met Andrea" he nodded towards the blonde woman.

"I have" she looked down at her hands, "she lost her sister?"

"She did" Dale gulped and looked down himself.

"What was her name?" Ailene asked the man, who was visibly upset.

"Amy" he whispered, eyes filled with tears, "she was a lovely girl" Ailene leaned over and grasped his hand with hers. She was slowly realising that although this might be some fun tv show that her best friend liked, being here, it was real life for these people, and now for her too. The pain these people felt was real, along with the fear of the constant threat of death- they had lost their loved ones.

"I'm sure she was" Ailene replied, squeezing his hand in hers, "I'm so sorry you lost her" The old man nodded sadly, patting her hand with his free one, he cleared his throat softly and then turned back to the conversation they were having.

"Next to Andrea is T-Dog" Dale continued, meaning the African-American man with a large bandage on his arm.

"T-Dog?" she quirked an eyebrow to him, "what's his real name?"

"Theodore" Dale whispered, with a small laugh.

"Fair enough" she laughed with the man, before nodding to the crossbow wielding man, "who's that?"

"That's Daryl" he told her, she looked over at the man with a raised eyebrow, she was sure that was the character Clare had been in love with. _Hmm, she could see it._ "and you already know Glenn and Carol"

"I do indeed" she smiled, before finishing off her mug of tea, "I think I should probably get changed" she laughed.

"You can use my tent" Carol got up from her seat, waiting for Ailene to follow her, the Irish girl did just that, awkwardly bringing her mug along with her.

Ailene went inside the large tent and whistled. "This is like a palace" she laughed, "better than the shitty one I took to Leeds Fest. Six years ago- someone set it on fire"

"What kind of festival is that?" Carol laughed with a frown.

"Oh it's a bit sketchy" Ailene laughed, "I went after I finished uni"

"How long have you been teaching?" Carol asked, as Ailene went into one of the tent compartments to change.

"About five years properly" Ailene explained, pulling off her skirt and putting on the black skinny jeans she had been given. "I had to do a year teacher training after my history degree" she explained as she changed her top to a tight grey t-shirt and flung the shirt over her shoulder. She walked out and went to put her boots on.

"Oh, here" Carol handed her a pair of thick walking socks, "sounds interesting though, I've always enjoyed history"

"Yeah it's pretty fun" Ailene replied, struggling to put her socks on standing up, "the marking of papers is not" she sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Aha" Carol let out a laugh, "I'll bet"

Once fully dressed they both exited the tent and met Dale, who was frowning.

"You alright over there?" Ailene asked, as she watched Carol make her way into the big caravan, or RV as they called it.

"There's a well, T-dog and I are going to get some water from" he explained.

"Is no one out looking for Sophia?" Ailene's eyebrows were drawn together.

"Daryl has gone out" Dale sighed.

"Alone?" she asked, shocked, "surely that cannat be safe"

"Well Daryl always says he works alone anyway" Dale rolled his eyes, "to tell you the truth, I think this whole Sophia thing has hit him hard"

"You think?" Ailene's eyebrows were raised, spying the man that was the subject of their conversation swaggering his way into the woods.

"Daryl's not really one to share his feelings" Dale chuckled, "but I think he thinks it falls on him to find her, he's the hunter ya know"

"Ah I see" she sighed, "poor guy"

"Well I doubt you'd be saying that after you've been living with him for a while" he explained with an eye roll, "especially you"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ailene frowned, looking at the old man.

"Oh didn't Rick tell you?" he asked, before they were interrupted by T-Dog, who was wheeling a cart over towards them.

"You ready to go?" the man asked Dale, before turning to Ailene, "Hi- I don't think we've properly met"

"I'm Ailene" she replied with a warm smile, "pleasure to meet you"

"And you" he shook her hand, "I'm T-Dog"

"How's your arm?" she asked, peering at the bandaged wound, "what happened to you?"

"I-er- slipped and cut it on a car door" he looked down embarrassed, Ailene let out a small laugh and patted the man's shoulders.

"That sounds like something I'd do, my friend" she noted, "is it getting better?"

"Yeah, I've had some meds for it, seems to be on the mend" he smiled at her, nodding his head.

"Well that's fab" Ailene liked this guy, he seemed kind, "anyhoo, what can I help with?" she looked between the two men.

"You want to come along?" Dale asked, eyebrows slightly raised. Ailene nodded and with a 'mhmm' she started to push the cart along, T-Dog joined her and they made their way over to the well one of the Greene sisters had instructed them. Carol had explained to her that they were currently staying on Hershel Greene's farm, he was a vet and had been the one to patch poor Carl up after his accident. In fact, Carol had been very good at giving Ailene a quick story on what had happened to them all over the last few weeks. Ailene had felt guilty talking to her so much when she was going through some serious issues, but Carol had told her not to worry as it was good to talk to someone and have a distraction, the rest of the group were seeming to give her a wide-birth.

They were all breathing pretty heavy when they made it to the well.

"I'm not weak" T-Dog breathed, "and I'm not a coward" Ailene frowned, she hadn't even thought of it.

"I never said you were" Dale was concentrating on the well, and Ailene looked over a T-Dog and he shrugged. She was obviously intruding on some sort of conversation they had had earlier.

"No, what I said, on the highway" T-Dog panted, and Ailene looked away from them, eyes scouring the fields behind them for possible threats, "I don't know what that was, or where it came from" Ailene turned back to them and handed them cartons to put the water in. "That wasn't me" T-Dog finished, with a grim expression on his face, she caught his eye and gave him a small and what she hoped was a reassuring smile, he returned it, and then looked at Dale. "So I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone about that stuff I said"

Dale stopped what he was doing to look at T-Dog, Ailene felt like she was extremely intruding. "What stuff?" he said to the man who was getting his knickers in a twist over something Ailene didn't know. "I couldn't get a word out of you all day" Ailene smiled at the two men, before taking over the pumping from T-Dog.

"Do you think there's a snowballs chance we'll find that little girl?" T-Dog asked, changing the subject, Ailene frowned.

"For the first time in my life I'm betting on the snowball" Dale replied, and Ailene nodded.

"We'll find her" she grunted as she carried on pumping, as Dale started to walk towards the well's opening, she stopped her movements and followed him with her eyes. T-Dog was mumbling about pulling their weight and getting on with jobs, but Ailene was concerned at Dale's movements. She left the pump's side, and walked over to where the older man was leaning over the broken opening to the well. As soon as she got there she heard the familiar gargling growls and as she neared, she peered over the edge and exchanged an annoyed, yet fearful look with Dale.

"For christsake" she mumbled, rolling her eyes, "those things are disgusting" but Dale's attention had moved to T-Dog who was just about to take a ladle-full of the walker-infested water, he knocked it out of his hands and Ailene sighed with relief.

"I wouldn't drink that if I were you" Dale told him, and realisation dawned on the other man's face before he looked over at Ailene who had a grim expression on her's.

* * *

"Well that was probably the most disgusting thing I've ever seen" Ailene sighed, brushing her hands that were stinging slightly from trying to pull Glenn and then that damn walker out of the well.

"You can say that again" Andrea murmured, "You coming to the highway, see if Sophia has managed to find her way back?" she called to Ailene, who was just standing uselessly in the middle of camp.

"Yeah, I'll come along" she nodded in reply, walking to join the grumpy Shane and Carol, who had a faraway look in her eyes. She decided to give the woman some space, Ailene's thoughts suddenly went to Kerry, one of the woman from her village, she remembered when her little boy went missing she didn't want any words, just the comfort of knowing people were there if she needed them. Sometimes silence was better than trying to explain feelings, words were not always good enough.

That was what had bugged her about Andrea and Shane's way of trying to deal with Carol's grief. It hadn't taken them too long to find their way to the highway, and the note on one of the car windscreen's telling Sophia to stay put hadn't been received by the little girl. Ailene felt a wave of disappointment, although she had never met the child, it was empathetic for Carol, whose expression looked like her heart was breaking into a million pieces. They tried to talk to her, and looked annoyed when they were brushed off by the mother, Ailene rolled her eyes and caught the eye of the woman she had come to really admire in the short time she had known her. She gave Carol a pointed and determined look, making sure that she knew that they wouldn't give up on her girl. Carol returned the look with a small semi-smile that conveyed her gratitude to the Irish woman.

Ailene nodded in the direction of Andrea and Mr Limpy, and made sure that Carol was following before she began walking also. They hung back from the two, who were in some sort of deep conversation. Walking a few feet from each other, Ailene made sure that Carol knew she was there for her, yet giving her the space she needed.

All in all it was about a three hour round trip until they were back on Greene land, where Shane declared a good spot for shooting practice; that would come in the next few days.

"The fences seem pretty secure" Ailene noted, "it would probably take a load of those damn things to get through them"

"Right" Shane agreed with a nod, before hobbling off back towards camp.

* * *

"Hey" the girl Ailene recognised as Maggie, called to her from the entrance to camp. She was walking over to her purposefully with two large bags full of something, her and Glenn must have got back from their run into town.

"Hi" Ailene straightened up from trying to organise some of the camp's things. Since getting back from the highway, Carol had shut herself in the RV and busied herself with cleaning. "How was the run, get into any trouble?"

"Not walker-kind" Maggie grinned with a mischievous glint in her eyes, "erm, we got you some clothes and stuff"

"That's so kind" Ailene smiled, taking the rucksack and bag, "thank you"

"No problem" Maggie smiled before turning to walk away.

"Hey- Maggie" Ailene called, the pretty younger woman spun back around to face her, "if you, or your family need anything, please just ask- you've been so kind, I'd love to return it"

"Sure thing" Maggie nodded, giving her a warm smile.

Ailene placed the bags down and pouring some of the tea she had made for Carol into one of the mugs, she walked towards the RV before catching a troubled-looking Glenn marching through camp.

"Glenn?" she asked, turning towards him, "are you alright?"

"Yeah," the man sighed, "fine"

"Thanks for getting all my stuff" she smiled, "you didn't have to put yourself at risk for me"

"It was no problem" Glenn shrugged, back to his friendly ways.

"Well thank you anyway" she nodded and watched him walk off towards his tent. Ailene spun around to continue on her way to the RV, but she gasped and spilt tea on her as she realised she'd almost bumped into someone. "Ouch" she murmured, pulling her tight t-shirt away from her body as the scalding liquid seeped through the thin material. She looked up to find Daryl standing there, "sorry, I didn't see you there" she apologised and he just shrugged at her, she looked towards the RV, "how is she doing?"

"Not great" he sighed, brushing the back of his neck, "I wouldn't go in there if I were you"

"Yeah," Ailene agreed, "if you've just been in, I don't want to crowd her out" she looked at the man and then remembered where he had been all day, "did you find anything out there?"

"I found a house with a blanket set up in a small cupboard" he explained, peering down at her, the height difference was almost comical. Daryl must have been about six-foot and Ailene was just shy of 5 foot- 3. "only a kid could fit in there" her eyebrows raised, this was good news.

"That's promising" she smiled to him, "I'm sure she'll be found soon" she nodded with a hopeful expression.

"You don't think she's dead?" he asked her, it shocked her to hear him being so blunt.

"Um no" she replied, her eyebrows drawn together, "I mean I guess it's a possibility, but surely we should be working towards the fact that she's not?" she looked up to his blue eyes, which were squinting at her.

"Good" he said after a moment of pretty intense eye-contact, "'cause I'm sick of Shane bitchin' that she's not alive" he huffed, changing his stance slightly.

"Well I've only been around for like ten hours" she sighed, a slight grin on her face, "but to me he seems like a bit of a cun-"

"Hey!" she was interrupted by the shout from Rick, they both turned to face the man who was strangely wearing a sheriff's uniform, Ailene didn't miss the small grin of amusement Daryl had sent her way before turning his attention to the policeman. "glad you're both here" Rick was carrying a sleeping bag and other forms of bedding, he glanced at Ailene's hands and seeing the mug, he handed them to Daryl. "There's some bedding there for you, and seeming as though the other tents are pretty cramped, you'll be bunking with Daryl here" he informed her.

"What?" the man snorted and her jaw dropped slightly, knowing this probably would piss the crossbow-wielding hunk off.

"I-it's okay" she put her free hand up, "I can sleep outside" she offered.

"What if it rains?" Rick asked her, incredulous, she sighed and rolled her eyes.

"I'm from Ireland" she scoffed, "there's literally three days each year when it _doesn't_ rain"

"Well" Rick sighed, "we're not going to let you sleep outside, are we Daryl?" they both turned to the man, who shifted on his feet.

"Course not" he huffed, turning to walk off to his tent.

"There's two compartments, don't worry" Rick reassured her, and she nodded before looking after the handsome, yet terrifying man.

"You comin?" Daryl grunted over his shoulder, "I'm not making your bed for ya" he shifted the bedding in his grasp.

"Shit" she muttered, scrambling over to the supplies Maggie had given her, "on my way"


	2. Chapter 2

**I seemed to have forgotten to put an A/N on this chapter, so here it is- this is one of the days that doesn't actually fit with the show but I thought I'd add it in. Hope you enjoy it.**

 **Also, just received a review from blackcat711, firstly thanks for reading and secondly I absolutely agree with you that just because she's a woman she can't learn to hunt, that's why in the first chapter I put that 'so he thought' meaning that she didn't agree with it, but that was just his ways... also in their life they didn't need to learn survival things because they weren't in the world of the walking dead. Coming from an Irish family with lots of Irish friends, as with any family really, you do have older men with an out-dated view on what women's roles should be, I've certainly fallen victim to it before, so _I'm_ not saying that because she's a woman she can't hunt, I'm trying to get across that her Dad had more old-fashion (and wrong) ideas. **

**Just thought I'd clear that up- thanks for reading :)**

* * *

"So… you're Daryl" Ailene said, attempting to break the awkward silence that had built when that had got back to his tent.

"Congratulations" he grunted, "gold star for you" he looked at her and she grinned back, causing his harsh expression to falter slightly, he gave her a small wry smile.

"Ooh, get you Mr Sarcasm" she retored, putting her hands on her hips, "when's the stand-up tour?"

Daryl's response was just a scoff, but he kept the small smile on his face, "you're in the left compartment" he pushed through the tent door, ducking inside. Ailene stumbled forward and followed him, pushing past him to open the compartment's zip as Daryl's hands were full.

"Thanks" he grumbled, as he plonked the bedding down in her new home.

"I'm Ailene by the way" she said, realising she hadn't actually introduced herself.

"Yeah, you said when you had your little field breakdown" he noted and Ailene laughed, before entering the compartment to set up her bedding.

"I did indeed" she grinned, watching as Daryl sat down on his bed, his feet hanging out of the compartment entrance. "Hey, I know this isn't ideal, but I'll try to stay out of your hair as much as I can" Daryl just grunted in response, playing with one of his arrows, not really looking at her. "and I'm sorry if I snore"

"Aw well snoring is an absolute deal-breaker" Daryl joked, putting his arrow aside and focusing on her, she laughed and held up her hands in defeat.

"I give you permission to kick me" she told him pointedly, before returning her attention back to making her bed. Ailene could feel his eyes on her as she put out the sleeping bag onto the low camp bed, once finished she sat up onto it and faced him, Daryl quickly averted his gaze.

"What's Ireland like?" he asked her, which took the Irish woman by surprise, he didn't seem like the chatty type. Ailene sighed, thinking about her home with a soft smile.

"I'm from a village called Glandore, it's just over an hour's drive from Cork city in the South of Ireland" she smiled to him, "pretty place, on the West coast" she looked at him, and unexpectedly he was still listening, "well I was always more of a home-bird, so I went to uni up in Cork and now I live and work there" she looked down at her hands, "not much of an adventurer I suppose, I could never afford to travel"

Daryl was still watching her with a strange look on his face, something she couldn't quite place, she coughed. "Anyway, that's long gone now" she said sadly, turning to make up her already-perfect bed as something to do.

"I'm sorry" he said to her sincerely, before getting up and leaving the tent.

* * *

Ailene was still a little confused by the conversation she had had with Daryl, he seemed friendly enough but from what she had observed and from Dale's comments- she hadn't expected it. She had decided to leave the tent and find Carol and Lori, as they seemed to be the ones doing the most 'housework' out of the group. She found them fussing over the fire and trying to decide what to eat.

"Hey there" Lori greeted her once her movements had been noticed, "you all set up in Daryl's tent?" Lori gave her an amused look, Ailene smiled and looked around making sure the subject of their conversation was nowhere to be seen.

"He seems nice" she commented, "rough around the edges, but nice" Lori's expression was one of wonderment, but Carol just nodded and smiled at the younger Irish woman. "Anyway, what needs doing?"

"You could go fetch us some water from the other well near the house?" Carol suggested, "seen as though the other one is erm-"

"Gooey?" Ailene asked with a small grin, "gotcha" she picked up the large bucket and skipped over to the side of the house.

"Hi" Ailene nearly jumped out of her skin, a teenage girl with blonde hair had greeted her from up on the porch of the farmhouse.

"Woah you gave me a fright" she replied, looking at the pretty girl, "hi- I'm Ailene" she smiled, brushing her dirty hand on her jeans before offering it to the nameless girl in a greeting. The blonde laughed and took her hand.

"Beth" she replied, "I like your accent" she noted with a friendly smile, and Ailene laughed.

"Really?" the girl nodded to her question, "well I like yours, its different"

"Different?" Beth scrunched her nose in disapproval, "it's horrible"

"How so?" Ailene, leant on the side of the house, placing the bucket down and giving her, her full attention.

"Well, don't you think it makes us sound stupid?" she asked, eyebrows raised high.

"Nope" Ailene disagreed, "you only sound stupid if you actually are" she grinned, "and I don't think that's you" Ailene went back to pumping water, as the girl stood there a curious gaze on her face.

"Is it true you're a teacher?" Beth asked, peering over the porch railings to her, leaning on the bannister.

"Was" Ailene corrected, looking up at her, "Now I'm 'bumbling idiot extraordinaire' one who doesn't really know what in the world is going on" Beth laughed heartily at this, the sound quite a magical one, leaving Ailene smiling knowing she'd made the girl laugh.

"Well I think you're pretty cool" the girl commented.

"Ah that's because you don't know me" another laugh from the girl caught the attention of the old man who was exiting the house.

"Now, what's going on here?" Ailene guessed this was Hershel, he too peered over the edge of the porch. "You must be Ailene, Rick was telling me about you"

"Hi" she greeted the man, "probably telling you all about how mad I am?" she asked, with a laugh as Hershel's expression reddened slightly.

"Um" he mumbled, looking away from her.

"Aha" she grunted, "Don't worry I won't tell Rick you told me" she smiled at the old man, who in spite of himself, smiled back. "You really have a beautiful place here" she looked over the land, "I'm from the countryside, your farm is very homely"

"Thank you" Hershel took the complement, "very kind of you to say" he looked down at the full bucket, "do you need any help with that?"

"I think I should be able to manage it" she huffed, "I hope" she chuckled looking up at the man, "thanks though"

"Ailene?" Beth asked her tentatively, "I've got some books you might be interested in- would you like to see them?"

"Of course" the Irish woman replied with a smile, an approving one on Hershel's face.

"History was my favourite subject at school" Beth explained, "I miss it" she sighed looking down at Ailene.

"Well, let me go take this back on over to Carol" Ailene grunted, as she picked up the bucket, "and I'll have a look at those books with you"

"Great" Beth skipped off into the house.

"Thank you" Hershel whispered to her, leaning down and patting her shoulder, "she's not had much conversation at the minute"

"Not a problem" she smiled to the old man, before lugging the bucket back to camp. Ailene put it down next to Carol, who was chopping up some of the tinned veg they had stored, she was making a large stew with some of the squirrels that Daryl had caught earlier that day.

"Thanks" Carol looked up, and Ailene had noticed that Lori was nowhere about.

"How you doing?" she asked the slightly older woman, hoping that it wasn't too intrusive, but to her relief, Carol didn't seem angry.

"I'm doing okay" she replied with a small smile, "just getting on with it" Ailene nodded, using that coping strategy often herself.

"Good" she smiled back, "don't you be giving up now" she patted Carol's shoulder, "I'm heading into the house, one of the girls, Beth, wanted to show me some books"

"Aw" Carol looked at the house, "that's nice, she seems like a good kid"

"Yeah, she's pretty adorable" but Ailene felt guilty, "I can put it off though, if you need any help?"

"Don't be silly" Carol chuckled, "you'd be doing us a favour trying to get Hershel and his family on-side to let us stick around"

"Well, let me know if you need anything?" Ailene smiled, "don't let me skip out on duties"

"I wouldn't dream of it" she laughed, nodding towards the house, "go on"

Ailene made her way up the steps on the house's porch, and softly knocked on the door before letting herself in the house. She saw Beth sat on the stairs, she looked up gleefully when she heard the door go.

"Ailene!" she exclaimed, "Okay so I've got some books about medieval England"

"Good choice" Ailene replied, following the young girl up the stairs and finding her room, nicely decorated, "have you read about the wars of the roses?" she asked her with a smile.

"Yes" Beth replied, pulling out a large book and sitting on her bed, "I love the story of the Princes in the tower" Ailene chuckled, and sat alongside her, enjoying a fellow historian's passion.

* * *

Ailene came out of the house feeling pretty good, she had learnt that Beth was sixteen, around the same age as most of her students. The girl had lots of questions and Ailene was all too happy to answer them, getting a strange feeling of home from the girl- it was almost giving her normality. She cheerfully skipped down the steps to find Carol still stood by the fire, casually stirring the pot of broth.

"Smells really good" Ailene commented, feeling guilty as she had made the woman jump, "ooh sorry about that"

"You frightened me" Carol laughed, "I was away with the fairies there"

"Sounds like me, most of my life" Ailene replied with a grin, "is there anything you need doing?"

Carol looked around, hands resting on her hips. "Umm" she sighed, "you could gather the bowls and cutlery? They're in the RV"

"Right on it" Ailene replied marching over to the vehicle, catching the eye of Rick, "Oh, hey" she waved at him, "how's your boy getting along?"

"He's coming along just fine" Rick sighed, with a small smile, "he's through the worst of it now"

"That's brilliant news" Ailene smiled, "I can't wait to meet him"

"He's been looking forward to seeing you as well" Rick smiled at the woman, and she grinned in response.

"Even though I'm mad?" she looked at him and his face paled, "I know I am" she laughed, moving past him to the RV.

"You did seem a bit" Rick laughed at her, and she sighed.

"You already know me so well" she joked, before frowning, one hand on the handle of the entrance to the RV. "Hey Rick?" she asked the man who turned around and gave her a friendly look, "Will you let me go out and look for Sophia tomorrow?"

"Sure thing" he nodded, "we need all the help we can get" he stopped to look at her before he turned to walk off, "Thank you, you know you didn't have to offer"

"Rick, you have taken me in when you could have so easily let me walk out" she smiled to him, "I'll help whatever way I can"

"Well I appreciate that" Rick smiled, "but the way you took out that walker, we weren't gonna let you go anywhere"

"It was pretty cool wasn't it?" Ailene laughed, grinning at him.

"Yeah it was" he laughed, "look I'm glad you're here Ailene, and I know I'm not alone in that- you've raised a few spirits since we found you this morning" he leant over and tapped her on the shoulder, "and hey, you've managed to get Daryl talking, not an easy task"

"Ahh I bet he's a real chatty chap, you're just being kind" she winked, before turning and entering the RV and retrieving the bowls she had been tasked with.

Ailene helped dish up the dinner, the group had quickly converged on camp, before settling in to a seat next to Glenn and T-Dog.

"Hey" Glenn greeted her "you all settled in now?" he asked as she took a spoonful of the stew Carol had made.

"Mm" she replied, swallowing the delicious food, "Carol this is great" she told the woman who was sat a couple of seats away, she gave her a thankful smile before returning back to her own food, "yeah, thanks again for all the things you got" Ailene said the Glenn, "I really appreciate how welcome you're making me"

"Well I'm glad" he lowered his voice then, leaning in to look at her, "I heard you're bunking with Daryl?" he grimaced slightly, "good luck" Ailene laughed, looking across the fire to the man in question, he had his eyes focussed on his bowl of food.

"He's not bad at all" she shrugged, "pretty friendly if you ask me" Glenn scoffed, and so did T-Dog clearly having heard their conversation.

"That's a word I wouldn't associate with him" T-Dog grinned at Glenn, who was nodding. Ailene tutted and looked at them both.

"Shh" she told them, "that's my best friend you're talking about" she joked, before casting another glance in Daryl's direction. She had found him friendly, he was a quiet man which Ailene understood, all of her joking and awkwardness was her way of protecting herself and pushing people away. She recognised a similar trait in Daryl, his unfriendliness and gruff attitude made sure no one got close enough to hurt him. Daryl looked up and caught her eye, to which she immediately averted her gaze, trying to stop the blush that had arisen in her cheeks at being caught staring.

Ailene had volunteered to wash up after dinner trying to do anything she could to repay their hospitality, Dale had joined her, which was nice. She liked the old man, he reminded her of the Father she had lost just a few days previously, and his caring nature made her feel at ease. They didn't talk much to start with, Ailene found it strange as he was a pretty chatty man usually.

"You alright?" she asked, peering at him, "you seem a little distracted"

"Yeah I'm okay" he sighed, picking up another dish to rinse, "just Shane's got my back up"

"Aw Dale, don't worry yourself with people like him" she looked around to find Shane sat at the camp fire, a kind of mad expression on his face, "he seems like he's going through something and he's just taking it out on people- not the best person to be around, like" she smiled to the old man.

"I know" Dale sighed, "he's been a lot different since Rick got here"

"Well that's because he's not the leader anymore" Ailene observed, "he's lost power there, and now people aren't doing everything he says"

"It seems he's lost a bit more than power" Dale muttered to her, as she saw Lori walk past Shane, he gave her a strange look, realisation dawned on her.

"Ohh" was all she could reply, "Poor Rick" she winced, going back to scrubbing the pan. Shane got up from his seat in a huff and walked past them towards his tent, "You heading in for the night?" she called to him. Shane stopped and looked at her, she smiled brightly.

"Yeah, I'm pretty worn out" he sighed, moving towards them slightly.

"I bet you are, after walking all that way on your ankle" she nodded to his foot, "well deserved sleep I think" she smiled again, and surprisingly he smiled back.

"Well," he looked at her, "goodnight" and then looked at Dale, "both of you"

Dale waited until he was gone, before giving Ailene an incredulous look, she smiled to the old man and patted her nose, leaving a few suds there.

"I know what I'm doing" she grinned wiping the suds off with the sleeve of the shirt she had donned since the heat had dropped.

"And what might that be?" Dale asked, curious.

"Well the way I see it" she said, lowly, to avoid any unwanted overhearing, "he's feeling pretty 'left out'" she said that using quotation marks at the immature statement, "if people speak to him, include him, then maybe he won't be in such a mood all the time, _and_ hopefully he won't do anything rash" she looked at Dale, "because he seems like the exact person to do something rash"

"Hm" Dale nodded, "good idea" he dried his hands, "and you're right, he is that sort of person"

Ailene piled up the now clean and dry dishes, and carried them back into the RV, she bid Dale a goodnight, before heading off to her own bed.

The tent was pretty quiet when she got inside, she didn't know if Daryl were asleep or not, so she tried her very best to keep her noise to a minimum. She found her toothbrush and began brushing her teeth before changing into an oversized t-shirt she had spied that would be good for sleep. Finally she went to crawl into her compartment, ready for sleep, when Daryl's voice spoke through the walls of the tent.

"Goodnight, Ailene" he said softly, then she heard rustling as though he was turning over in his bed.

"Night Daryl" she murmured, "have a good sleep" she continued, inwardly cringing at how stupid she sounded. She climbed into bed and shut her compartment almost closed, laying on her back she realised that if this was a dream, then maybe when she woke up she would be back where she belonged.

It was with that hope, she fell asleep.

* * *

"Ah feck"

Daryl heard the exclamation from the strange woman next to him, he had been awake for a while, but just couldn't be bothered to move. Curious, he unzipped his compartment and poked his head out, obviously hearing his zip, Ailene had done the same. Her pretty face emerged with a sheepish grin on it.

"Sorry" she apologised, "I hope I didn't wake you" her blue eyes searched his face and he shook his head.

"I've been up for a while" he eyed her, "what's wrong?"

"Nothing" she replied, slight disappointment in her eyes, Daryl frowned at her until she sighed. "Okay well to tell you the truth I though this might all be some mad dream and I'd wake up and it be back to normal"

"Ah" he replied, as she unzipped her full compartment door and sat cross-legged on her camp bed. She was pretty small, but not petite, her figure was strong and able. He hadn't noticed how pale she was before he saw the expanse of her legs, but her skin was extremely white, in contrast to her long almost-black hair. He couldn't deny that she was beautiful, and he could quite happily listen to her all day- the sound of her musical voice stirring something within him.

"Did you sleep well?" she asked, as she pulled on her jeans and tried to tame her wavy hair.

"The same as always I guess" he shrugged, before looking at her, "did you?"

"Pretty much" she smiled, "I always liked camping" he laughed a little at her comment.

"It gets old real quick" he told her, sitting forward to pull on his shirt, and then unzipping the compartment and sitting out to put his boots on.

He heaved himself up out of the tent and grabbed his crossbow, giving her some privacy. He was surprised just how comfortable he felt with her, she was easier to talk to than the rest of the group, didn't take herself too seriously and she was kind. He normally would think that she was quite naïve, but he got the feeling that she could hold her own, and the way that she had killed that walker on instinct was pretty impressive.

A lot of the camp was already up, Carol was hanging washing on one of the lines and Rick was by one of the cars with a map.

"Hey Daryl" he called him over, "you know you checked the creek yesterday? How about you head out near there and check this area" he gestured at the area on the map that Daryl hadn't checked yet.

"Yeh" he replied, pulling on his jacket, "I'll head out in the next hour"

"Take Ailene" Rick instructed, and Daryl frowned.

"I'm better off alone ya know" he argued, but Rick shook his head.

"Look she wants to go out and look for her, and I'd feel more comfortable if you weren't alone" he reasoned, "she could watch ya back, you never know" Daryl sighed, knowing there was no point arguing.

"Fine" he grunted, turning and grabbing a granola bar from the camp before marching back over to his tent. He saw her emerging from it, tripping over the guy-rope slightly, Daryl sighed she was either going to get herself killed, or him.

"Hey" she smiled to him, pulling out a leather jacket from the tent, showing it to him, "Glenn's got style- see what he got for me?"

"Hm" he replied, trying to stop from smiling at her, she was funny.

"Hmm maybe Maggie got it" she frowned, before chucking it back into the tent and pulling on her boots.

"Rick said you're coming out to search today" he told her, and she looked up to him.

"Yeah, I asked him yesterday" she smiled.

"Well you're coming out with me" he informed her, Ailene's smile never faltered, "don't get me killed, alright?"

"Hey Mr Macho" she had straightened, holding her hands on her hips and frowning at him, "I'm pretty tough, okay?" she gave him a glare, he scoffed and returned the glare.

"Whatever" he told her, "Go get a weapon off Rick"

"Fine" she grumbled, traipsing over through camp towards the cop.

"And get some food" he called after her, rolling his eyes that he actually gave a shit.

Daryl took his time getting ready, seeing Ailene walking through camp with a bright expression on her face, she spoke to Carol for quite a while. It didn't surprise Daryl that the two of them got on well, they were both kind-hearted people, and quietly strong, he didn't realise at the time, but he had a lot of admiration for both women.

After a while, Ailene caught his eye, smiling at him she picked up the crowbar type weapon she had been given, and a fairly large knife, and walked over to him.

"You ready to head out?" she asked him when she'd got close enough, he nodded and pushed off the tree he had been leaning on.

"You get enough food?" he asked her, as they began walking towards the forest.

"Yeah" she replied, looking at him with a curious smile on her face, "did you?" she asked, which made Daryl's eyebrows shoot up in surprise, he wasn't used to people caring about him.

"Yeah some granola shit" he grunted, looking towards the forest and thinking where they were going.

They walked a while in relative quiet, making their cautious way through the forest. They hadn't seen much that would have signalled that a child would have passed through, but he had come across some squirrels that would be good for dinner.

"Reminds me of my Dad" Ailene smiled at him, as they stood in the bushes, waiting for him to sling the animals in his bag.

"You said he used to teach you to track?" he asked, with a quirked eyebrow.

"Yeah," she smiled sadly, stirring a curiosity in him at what had happened to her father, "he used to do all that survival stuff with me, I guess he thought I was the most manly out of all my sisters" she grinned and rolled her eyes at him before moving off through the trees.

He followed her off into the woods, they were a couple of miles from where he had searched the previous day. There wasn't much around, but she caught his attention with a low whistle, ears pricked, he looked over to her. She gestured for him to come, once there she pointed to a small house that looked more like a large cabin.

"There's a walker over there though" she turned to look at him, he spied it in the path they would have to take to the cabin.

"I got it" he grunted, moving past her slightly, he raised his loaded crossbow and shot the thing quickly sending it dead to the ground. "come on" he made his way down the small bank they were stood on and through to the clearing where the building stood.

Daryl bent to retrieve his arrow, and lead the way towards the cabin, reloading his crossbow as he went. Once they reached the door, he looked at her, assessing whether or not she'd be able to handle it.

"You good?" he asked her, a frown fixed in place. Ailene adjusted the grip on her weapon and nodded, she had a worried expression but it was a determined one at that. Taking a breath, he hauled the door open and stepped wearily inside. The house looked ransacked, broken pieces of furniture and knocked over lamps or vases, dead flowers spilled out of them. Obviously some other group had been in here looking for supplies, that, or the owners had packed in an extremely messy way.

They walked towards the end of the long hallway, peering in each room as they did so. The back room was a large kitchen, which had two other doors inside it, Daryl moved carefully over to one of the doors he thought might lead to a dining room, or it might have even been a pantry. He felt Ailene stick close towards him as he reached out for the door handle but before he could, the door was flung open against him.

Daryl was pinned against the wall as the hungry arms of a stinking walker grasped at him. The only thing separating him and becoming walker-dinner, was the door itself. He heard Ailene scream and cursed allowed as she ran from the room. The scream had alerted another couple of walkers that must have been hiding in the same room, as suddenly the force on the door became much stronger. He was pinned so tightly against the door that he couldn't even move his arms to grasp his weapon or knife, he was using all his strength to stop the creatures from getting to him.

The hungry fingers and growls were becoming stronger and stronger, Daryl had no idea if this was it, this was how he went, but he certainly felt like it. Trying desperately to free his hand to finally reach his weapon, he fell short, grunting in frustration at the situation and the fact that the woman had left him.

Suddenly, he heard running and felt the pressure of the door ease off slightly. He saw her in between the fragments of the crumbling door, she was beating one of the walkers in the head, smashing its skull. Next she turned to the other one, who had turned its attention from him and to her, as it grasped at her shirt, she tried to dodge out of its way before managing to hit in in the stomach. This sent the thing reeling slightly, giving her enough room to smack its head in. With this commotion, the final walker had stopped pushing against the door and turned towards her, this gave Daryl the opportunity to push free of the door, grab his knife and stab the walker through the skull. Daryl stood there panting as he watched her repeatedly smashing the skull of the second walker she'd taken down, the brownish blood spattering her arms, face and chest.

She finally stopped, dropping the crowbar and walking away from him, she walked out of the room and down the hallway until she exited the house. Daryl took another breath before picking up her weapon and following her out of the house.

She stood a few paces away from the house, her back to him. He walked over to her without saying anything, just stood there next to her, and could see that she had tears in her eyes.

"I'm so sorry" she blurted, tears spilling over down her face that was marked with blood, "that was so cowardly of me". Daryl looked at her, pity flickered through him, he didn't like seeing her upset- something in him wanted to comfort her, make her feel better.

"You came back didn't you" he said, relatively softly, "don't worry about it"

"No don't say that" she shook her head at him, "I was scared and I left you" she violently brushed the tears off her face, with a frown in place. Daryl sighed, slinging his crossbow over his shoulder and shifting slightly on his feet.

"Yeah but you came back" he replied, wondering whether or not to pat her out of comfort. "Come on, you're just getting used to this" he said, with a sigh, reaching out and touching her shoulder, hoping it would give her some comfort. "how many walkers have you killed?" he asked her, she looked over at him, her tears has subsided for now.

"I guess those two make three" she sniffed, looking at the floor. Daryl frowned, he wondered how she had managed to survive out there for so long without killing any walkers. This woman was certainly a mystery to him, he remembered what she had been saying the day before- that she woke up and she was here. He shook off all the questions that he had, and just looked at her, replacing his frown with a slight smile.

"See?" he reassured her, "It'll get easier" he sighed and looked out to the forest.

"Are you hurt?" she was eyeing him, but he shook his head.

"Nah I'm all good" he grunted, looking at her wearily, "shall we get going?" he asked, "there's no way Sophia would have been in there"

"Yeah I'll come" she smiled at him weakly, reaching out for him to hand her the weapon. "I'll be better next time" she vowed, more to herself than him, taking a shaky breath before he began leading back towards the forest.

Ailene was pretty quiet the rest of the day, they walked for a while, checking in small crooks in trees and by a nearby stream.

"Here" she called to him, passing him a water bottle, he took is gratefully as the heat of the day was starting to get to them. "Do you think maybe someone had come through here?" she crouched down looking at the ground. "I mean it certainly looks disturbed" she looked up at him, but he paused, looking around him studying the shrubs.

"Hmm" he let out a breath, "yeah I think you're right" he crouched near her and looked carefully, coming to a similar conclusion as she did. "It doesn't look like dragging, not like a walker, it looks more like footsteps"

"What we don't know is if it was Sophia or not" she whispered looking at him, they were quite close together, so close he could see the freckles on her face.

"That's right" he swallowed, looking away from her "This stream has gotta lead somewhere" he stood up and looked along the riverbed, but then he sighed looking up at the sky, "we should probably head back though, we're a while walk away and the sun's going down"

"We can search for a little bit longer surely?" she asked him with a frown, hands on her hips, "another hour or so?" Daryl looked at her face, she was pleading with him, obviously trying to do the right thing.

"One hour" he informed her, "we'll head downstream to see if there's anything there"

"Thanks" she smiled, beginning to walk along the riverbank.

They walked for a few minutes in silence then Ailene broke it, "Hey Daryl?" she asked him, he didn't look at her, continuing along their path.

"Hmm?"

"What's Sophia like?" she asked, "I haven't wanted to ask Carol because-well- obviously" she babbled.

"She's quiet, good kid" he mumbled, "her dad wasn't good to her, either of them" he swallowed, "if you know what I mean". Ailene looked over at him with a sad expression and nodded.

"I know exactly what you mean" she sighed, causing the flicker of intrigue to ignite in him again, _who the hell was this woman?_

"She got chased by walkers into the forest" he explained, as they stepped over a large log, "Rick went after her, they got split up and she's not been seen since" he sighed, "I tracked her for a while, but I lost her"

"It's not your fault" she said, stopping walking and turning to look at him, "you know that right?"

Daryl just scoffed in response, he knew it was his fault, he should have been able to track her. She was a little girl for Christ's sake, how could she have got so far that she could have eluded him? Why was she trying to make him feel better? It scared him that she actually cared.

"Daryl" he spun around to face Ailene, her voice was stern and her expression mirrored it, "you need to stop blaming yourself" he stared at her for a minute, before looking away in anger.

"Are we looking or what?" he grunted, "stop chatting like you know me" he stormed off away from her, not caring if she was behind him or not.


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you so much for reading, following and reviewing- I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

 **It's kicking off a bit now... and will definitely be in the next chapter- I hope you're enjoying and continue reading.**

* * *

Ailene remained quiet for the rest of the day's search, she didn't really know why what she'd said had annoyed Daryl so much, but it had. She kept eyeing him, but he'd got his back up and there was no way she was going to talk to him, she had a habit of making things worse.

After a while of walking, they had come to a ridge, where the stream filled over into a small reservoir, Daryl had just grunted at her about him coming back tomorrow as it was getting too dark for them to stay out. She hadn't replied, she had just followed him back to camp and then left his company as soon as she could.

Ailene stormed away from Daryl, a little annoyed with herself but mainly with him for being so cold when she'd just been trying to make him feel better. She huffed and went to sit down by the fire, Glenn was sat there with a similar glum expression on his face.

"Bad day?" he asked her, as she leaned forward onto her knees, putting her face in her hands. Ailene let out a long sigh before looking up at him.

"You could say that" she grumbled, "what about you?" she eyed the friendly, awkward man.

"Girls confuse me" he moaned, letting his head fall into his hands.

"You mean girls named Maggie?" she asked, with a sheepish grin looking at him, "Glenn you make it so obvious like"

"Really?" he looked a bit worried, "do you think her Dad knows?" Ailene mused for a second, before shaking her head.

"I think he knows she's got a soft spot for you" she explained, "but I can see how distracted you were when you came back from that run"

"She acts like she wants me and then like she hates me-I" he huffed, defeated.

"Don't worry" Ailene smiled, "that's what girls do, I always got told 'treat em mean, keep em keen'" she laughed at Glenn's exasperated expression.

"That's messed up" he grumbled, looking at her.

"Hey, I'm not disputing that" she let out a laugh, "it's just the way some people work" she shrugged.

"Hmm" he sighed, "so she still likes me?"

"I think so" Ailene looked over at the girl in question, leaning on the porch talking to Beth, "why don't you go and find out?"

"What, go up to her?" he asked, frowning.

"Yes you silly thing" she laughed again, "I'll go over and ask Beth about more books, I haven't seen her all day anyway" Ailene smiled at the thought of the young girl, "and then Maggie will be alone, for you to show her that you care"

It didn't take Glenn much more convincing, and it gave Ailene the escape from the outside that she had wanted. Beth had been all too happy to chat to her again, and to tell the truth, Ailene enjoyed the company of the girl, she was so innocent.

"Anyway, how are you doing?" Ailene asked her, "With all these strangers on your farm it can't be much fun"

"It's actually quite nice" she replied, "having more company around" she looked over to Ailene with a kind look.

"Well you're excellent company" Ailene glanced out the window and saw it was fully dark now, "I best be off to bed, it seems as though camp has turned in for the night" she smiled at the girl.

"Oh alright" Beth looked out the window as well, before leaning over and embracing the Irish woman. It took Ailene by surprise, the last time she had been hugged like that was by her Auntie, when she'd gone to tell her about her father dying. Ailene hugged the girl back, before taking a breath and releasing the pretty girl, she smiled and left the room, eyes prickling with tears.

She was descending the stairs when Rick caught sight of her.

"Oh hello" he was surprised, "I was wondering where you were for the rest of the night?"

"Oh I've been securing my friendship with Beth" Ailene laughed slightly, giving him a smile, "she's a sweet kid" she nodded to him, "how was your day?"

"Um" he sighed, "we didn't find anything" he looked glum, "but I think Carl should be up and on his feet in the next few days"

"That's brilliant" Ailene smiled, "how is he?"

"Why don't you come and ask him yourself?" he offered, gesturing towards the door of Carl's temporary bedroom.

"Really?" she asked, "I'd love to meet him"

She followed Rick into the dimly-lit room, where his small boy lay, he was pretty pale, in contrast with his dark hair. Lori was sat close next to the bed, she looked up when they entered and smiled at her.

"Hey there Ailene" she greeted her, sitting back in her chair, "I haven't seen you all day"

"Hi" she smiled, "yeah I've been hiding away" the boy had moved his attention to her, a sleepy expression on his face. "You must be Carl" she walked over to the bed and held out her hand for him to shake, "I've heard lots of things about you" he shook her hand tenderly, a sweet smile on his face.

"Hi Ailene" he said weakly, "I've heard lots about you too"

"All bad I hope" she grinned at him and then looked at Lori, "you look exhausted, all of you" she frowned, "erm no offence" she blurted quickly, "I just came to see how you were doing" she'd turned her attention back to Carl with a friendly expression, "but I'll leave you to your rest"

"Goodnight Ailene" Rick patted her shoulder with a kind smile, "big day's search again tomorrow"

"Night all of yous" she smiled, waving at Carl, she left the room.

* * *

"I'll take a horse out" Daryl informed Rick as they all stood huddled around the bonnet of one of the cars, Ailene shifted on her feet as he looked up and caught her eye, before looking at Rick, "alone".

She rolled her eyes at his obvious dig at her, she didn't realise why he had changed his tune all of a sudden, but it was beginning to grate on her. He'd seemed fine after their little issue they had in the cabin, but he'd got mad when she'd told him that it wasn't his fault- how had that been a problem? Sighing she looked away as the rest of them discussed where they were going, she caught Carol's eye from across the camp, she gave the woman a warm smile which was returned. Ailene pushed all the frustration and worry about Daryl and focussed all her attention on Sophia, and the hope of bringing her back alright.

"Ailene?" she turned around at the call of her name, it was Shane, "looks like you're coming with us today"

"Fab" she replied, trying to keep the sarcasm out of her voice, she caught Daryl looking at her with a curious expression to which she just exhaled and looked away in annoyance.

"Get on in then" Shane instructed, gesturing to the car. Ailene smiled warmly at him before walking around the other side of the car and getting in the back, making room for Rick in the front.

* * *

The day was turning out to be one of the most awkward days Ailene had ever experienced, Shane had loosely shown her how to shoot a rifle and a handgun before they had set off into the woods. She had had a bit of conversation with Rick, but most of the first couple of hours had resulted in an awkward silence. That was until Rick started talking to Shane about girls, about their past, about school, that Shane had actually started talking. They were reliving the good old days, as Ailene trailed uselessly behind them, trying not to listen to their conversation but failing to avoid it.

It was when they started arguing that Ailene got annoyed, Shane was an arrogant man who thought little about other people and their feelings and she didn't like the way he was talking to Rick.

"What you think we should abandon the search?" Rick asked him incredulously.

"That's not my call now is it?" Shane replied, an exasperated expression on his face, walking away from him.

"I'm asking" Rick stepped towards his friend, and Ailene followed behind them, swallowing.

"Survival Rick" Shane told him, patronisingly, "It means making hard decisions, y-you've got this knack man, you spread us thinner and thinner, trying to save lives here and you're out saving cats from trees" he was ranting, Ailene tried to summon the courage to interject, but she didn't have it.

"Is that what you think Sophia is?!" Rick exclaimed, annoyed at his friend for obvious reasons, "a cat in a tree?"

"Hey don't do that man" he sighed, "don't twist my words, come on, how many times would we get called up to look for a missing child?" Shane sighed, "man you got seventy-two hours until you're looking for a body" Ailene gulped, there was truth in what Shane was saying, she'd seen it happen- the poor boy in her town. "That was before, I mean, you honestly think we're going to find Sophia alive?"

"Are you that sure we won't?" Rick asked him, Ailene felt grateful that he was sticking up for the child, as she couldn't seem to muster it in her to do it herself.

"We being completely honest?" Shane asked, with a huff.

"Well I'm counting on you to be" Rick looked at his friend, not sparing any glances Ailene's way.

"This is mad, man" Shane admitted, shaking his head, "alive or not, Sophia, she only matters to a degree that she don't drag the rest of us down" with that Ailene's blood boiled, she glared at Shane as she stomped past the two of them and continued walking into the forest to look for the poor child.

She heard them arguing behind her, but she continued on, not caring how far away from them she got. How could he be so heartless? Sophia was an innocent child.

She eventually heard the footsteps of the two men behind her. None of them spoke until it was time to return to camp, and she was glad of it, she thought she might end up smacking Shane if he opened his mouth again.

By the time they got back, the sun was very low in the sky, casting long shadows through camp. Shane slammed the door of the car more violently than actually necessary and stormed off to sulk in his tent. Ailene leant on the vehicle and let out a long, exhausted breath, looking at Rick who had a similar exasperated expression she did.

"Is he always that much of an arse?" she asked, and the man frowned at her.

"Nah that's not like him" Rick looked at Shane's tent, "He-" but he was cut off with a shout from Andrea.

"WALKER!" she yelled from atop the RV, pulling out the expert hunting rifle.

"Just the one?" Rick called up to her.

"Yeah" she affirmed his suspicion, "I can nail him from here" Ailene rolled her eyes, why the hell was she so trigger happy?

"No, no Andrea, put the gun down" Rick warned the blonde, Ailene headed in the direction of T-Dog and Shane who was now brandishing a pickaxe and a bare chest. _Wow, way to go overboard Shane._ She thought, as she looked at Rick.

"Hold on Hershel wants to deal with walkers" Rick warned, and Ailene nodded.

"What for man?" Shane grunted, "we got it covered" he limped towards the direction of the danger.

"Damn" Rick swore and looked at Ailene desperately, before running to grab his weapon. Ailene made sure she had her knife in place and followed him towards Shane, T-Dog, Glenn and the walker.

She started running when she saw they had, trailing behind slightly because she had started off later than them, but Ailene slowed- this thing looked a lot less like a walker than usual. They too had stopped, where Rick had raised his weapon, they were peering at the thing. Aliene finally reached them and saw that it wasn't a walker at all.

Holy shit it was Daryl.

"Third time you pointed that thing at my head" he huffed, "are you gonna pull the trigger or what"

And then he was shot.

"NOO" Rick screamed, almost exactly the same time as she did. Ailene rushed forward and saw him groaning on the floor, thankfully it was just a graze. She stared at his appearance, he was a complete mess, blood everywhere and then her eyes finally rested on the ears round his neck.

"Jesus Daryl" she scolded, pulling them off him, "where the fuck do you think you are, Vietnam?!"

She slammed them against Rick's chest and he shoved them in his pocket, "Let's just keep this to ourselves okay" he informed them.

The rest of the group had come running, Andrea was wailing and Dale was there too.

"Guys" T-Dog drew the attention back to him, "isn't this Sophia's?" Ailene looked from Daryl's limp form, to T-Dog, he was holding up a doll.

They all stared, knowing what this meant.

* * *

Ailene hadn't seen Daryl since he was brought back to the house, he had been ushered into a room with Hershel, Rick and Shane. The rest of the group were trying to carry on as normal, Carol had enlisted her help in the kitchen, as they finished the meal the rest of them had been preparing. It was a nice idea of hers to cook for the family, and Ailene thought it would go down well, but after the events of the day- the meal was tense and extremely awkward.

After everyone had cleared out and Carol had gone to take Daryl his dinner, Ailene offered to stay behind and wash up with Beth and Maggie. To her surprise the sisters were glad of her help, even after the intensity of the meal they had just endured.

"Girls I'm sorry about today" Ailene apologised as they began drying the dishes and putting them away, "I don't know what came over the group, it was all a bit wild"

"You're telling me" Maggie laughed, "at least Daryl will be alright" she sighed, putting away some of the plates they had used.

"Ailene do you want a cup of tea?" Beth offered, "to take out with you, I know you like one before bed" Ailene turned and smiled warmly at the sweet girl.

"That sounds perfect" she replied, "thank you"

"No problem" she said, turning and boiling the kettle on the stove. "How are you feeling?" she asked, "you must be tired from out searching today?"

"A little" she shrugged, "I guess I'm more worried about Daryl than tired" she let out a nervous laugh, realising that she'd just admitted to not only herself but another person, that she cared about the lunatic with a crossbow.

"I'd bet" Maggie sighed, making up the tea as Ailene fumbled for the milk to put in it, "you put milk in your tea?" she asked, confused.

"Only way to be" Ailene replied with a wicked grin, "it's not tea without it"

"Hmm" Beth frowned, "I guess I'll try it… at some point" Ailene laughed, picking up her mug and blowing on the boiling liquid.

"You'd love it" she smiled, "I best be off though- goodnight darlings"

"Night Ailene" Beth replied, turning out one of the lamps in the kitchen.

"Thank you for your help, again" Maggie called after her.

Ailene walked down the corridor and spotted the room Daryl was currently in, she took a breath before knocking softly on the door and opening it. She saw him laid up in bed, he'd shifted slightly when she'd come inside.

"Hershel said you fell on your own arrow" she said in a low voice, leaning on the wall opposite him, his eyes locked on her.

"Whatever happened to patient-doctor confidentiality?" he grunted, and Ailene grinned.

"Ah you see he's a vet, it would only count if you were a cow or something" she took a sip from her tea, trying to hide her smile, Daryl let out a short laugh, in spite of himself.

"Oh is that right?" he queried, trying to raise an eyebrow but it just disappeared into his head bandage.

"Yes" she smiled, "and what's also true is that you're an almighty eejit"

"What does that mean?" he frowned, and she just laughed.

"Well it doesn't matter now" she couldn't stop smiling like some pathetic teenager, "What does matter is that Andrea is a shit shot" he snorted at that, "I'm really glad you're okay" she told him, he looked at her in a funny way.

"Erm thanks" he mumbled, shifting the covers up to his chin.

"Right, I'm off to bed" she sighed, "try not to injure yourself any more" she pointed at him sternly, "and I'll try not to burn your tent down in the night or something" she grinned and opened the door. "Goodnight Daryl" she whispered, before leaving the room, and closing the door softly.

She left the house and stood on the porch for a moment, looking out across the camp. Dale was sat atop the RV facing away from the house, taking watch over the forest.

Suddenly the house door flung open and someone came running out, Ailene jumped wildly, placing her mug down and running after her.

"Maggie?" she called, "what's wrong?"

But Maggie didn't stop, she just kept running towards the barn, Ailene hot of her heels. She followed her around to the side of the barn and watched as she climbed up the ladder to the top part of the barn.

Ailene gulped, following her, and smelt the unmistakeable smell of death. _Oh no_ she thought, almost catching up to Maggie.

"Maggie what is it?" she called, catching the girls attention, but it was too late- Ailene could hear them.

"It's-" she turned to Glenn, who had appeared in the doorway, "you were never supposed to see this" she explained, looking at them both with a terrified expression.

"Walkers?" Ailene asked, looking at Glenn, he could only nod in fear. She pushed past them both and walked inside, almost overcome by the stench that was so strong. She peered over the edge of the mezzanine-type floor and a group of hungry, frightening, walkers. She took a breath and edged her way out of the barn and back to the two of the others.

"Please" Maggie pleaded with them both, "You have to keep it a secret"

"Maggie it's not safe, honey" Ailene tried to reason with her, as they all clambered down the ladder.

"Please" she begged, "for now"

Ailene shared a glance towards Glenn, and they sighed, nodding to her.

"Thank you" she whispered, as she returned to the house and Ailene and Glenn made their way back to camp.

"What are we going to do?" Glenn asked.

"I think we need to speak to Dale" she whispered, absolutely terrified.

* * *

"Ailene" Shane called to her, loading things into his car, "You coming?"

She was stood up on a chair, trying to rehang the washing line that had fallen during the night. She wracked her brain for excuses on to why she had changed her mind about shooting practice, to be fair she hadn't been terrible yesterday when Shane had loosely shown her the ropes.

"Um" she put her hands on her hips, catching sight of Glenn, "nah, do you know what, I think I got the hang of it yesterday and me and Glenn-"

"Yeah we gotta help Dale clean the spark plugs…" Glenn waffled on, and Ailene winced at his explanation was getting worse, "So er- we should probably go look for him"

"You found me" Dale spoke from behind them both, causing Ailene to spin around and look, almost falling off the chair. He was frowning at the pair of them, but shrugged, "they're good learners"

Shane frowned but shook his head either way, finishing packing the car and getting in, they watched the cars go. Ailene waved to Carl and smiled as Carol went past in their vehicle, they the three of them turned to each other.

"Spark plugs, huh?" Dale asked, "wanna tell me what's going on?" he frowned, looking between the two of them.

"You're old" Glenn started, and Ailene sighed.

"Jesus Glenn" she scolded, he looked at her worried.

"You're" he stammered, "you know things" Dale peered at him, confused. "So what if somebody told you something that somebody else should know-" Ailene frowned, was he still talking about the walkers?

"Glenn stop being dramatic" Dale had finally lost patience with Glenn's ramblings, "Spit it out"

"There's walkers in the barn" Ailene blurted.

"And Lori's pregnant" Glenn completed her sentence with an extremely unexpected line.

"What?!" she exclaimed, looking at him in shock, Dale had a similar expression on his face.

"I think we need to sit down" he said after at least a minute of shocked silence.

"You're right" Ailene nodded, walking over to the unordered seats around camp. They sat there in silence for quite a while, before Ailene spoke up, "I think we need to try and discus it with Hershel"

"Yes, we should try and reason with him" Hershel looked at Glenn, "maybe it should just be me and Ailene"

"Good idea" Glenn breathed, looking somewhat relieved that he wouldn't have to talk to the old man.

"I think he's in the stables" Dale sighed, "we should head over in a bit"

"Yeah" she sighed, sitting back in her chair, she brushed a hand over her face. This was hopeless.

* * *

They approached the stables wearily, Ailene was nervous, she knew Hershel was quite a tough old nut, even if he had been kind to her. They saw Hershel trying to groom the horse Daryl had lost the day previous.

"Nervous Nellie" Dale said, casually, leading them both towards the farmer, "she find her way home?"

"Found her in her stall this morning" Hershel replied, only glancing up at them before returning his attention to the pretty animal. Ailene leaned forward and patted her on the side of the neck, whilst Dale fed her and stroked her nose – she was a good girl.

"I love your fields" Dale complimented "we took a long walk this morning" she looked at him, "we ended up by the barn" Hershel looked at Dale and then stole a glance to Ailene, who looked down sadly.

"We heard the moans, Hershel" Ailene intervened, "smelt the smell"

"That's unfortunate" Hershel replied, keeping his eyes off them.

"I'm sure you have your reasons for keeping this a secret" Dale reasoned.

"I saw the broadcast before they stopped" Hershel explained, "saw the irrational fear, the atrocities, like the incident at my well" Ailene gulped- this would be harder than she thought.

"We put down a walker" Dale countered.

"You killed a person" Hershel spat, his expression unwavering.

"Hershel, I understand that you feel like this" Ailene swallowed, stepping forward and gathering the courage to speak up, "I know that you think that these people are still alive, and just have a virus" she gave him a look as to bear with her, "but those people are not the people you have known anymore, the virus is using their bodies as it's host" she sighed, "but they're not there anymore, only the hunger remains"

"My wife and stepson are in that barn" he told them calmly, "they're people"

She exchanged a concerned look with Dale, she sighed.

"I'm sorry" Dale told him, and Ailene nodded in agreement, she couldn't imagine what he was going through.

"We can help" Ailene offered.

"Absolutely, I'll speak to Rick, he's a good man" Dale insisted, "we can make the barn more secure, keep everybody safe"

"The barn is secure" Hershel replied, stubbornly, "keep this to yourselves if you want to help" he looked at Ailene who's expression was one of pity, "Rick is a man of conscience, but are you so sure about everyone in your group?"

Ailene swallowed, her mind immediately turning to Shane and how he would likely explode at the news of the walker-infested barn. She shook her head softly, knowing that only Hershel could see her do it, she looked at him with a sad expression. With that, they left the stables, deflated and defeated.

"We're going to have to tell the group, aren't we?" Ailene asked Dale, already knowing the answer.

"Unfortunately so" Dale sighed, with a shake of his head, "I fear this won't end well"

"I'm with you there, my friend" she reached out and patted his shoulder, doing everything not to pull him into a hug. He was so much like her dad she could cry.

Ailene left Dale to explain the situation to Glenn and stormed off to her tent, feeling like she needed to hide for a bit before the rest of the group got back.

"Fuckety, fuck, fucking feck" she swore in exasperation at her hopeless predicament and thumped into her part of the tent.

"You swear a whole lot for a teacher" came Daryl's voice, it made her jump, she thought he had still been in the house.

"Christ, I didn't know you were back in here" she let out a nervous laugh, peering at him, "how's your head?" Daryl shifted upwards on his bed and she sat in a low chair by his feet.

"Feels like shit" he half shrugged, "not going to lie"

"I bet" she grumbled, "and the arrow wound?"

"Same really" he sighed, "I wanna get back out"

"You're going nowhere Mr" she instructed him, "do you want me to get you anything?" she asked, feeling a bit useless.

"Aren't you meant to be shooting today?" he asked, ignoring her question.

"Shane showed me loosely how to shoot yesterday" she shrugged, battling with herself whether or not she should tell him, "so I said I'd stay back with Glenn and Dale" she put a small smile on her face.

"Ya like those two?" he asked her, strangely, she frowned.

"Glenn reminds me of myself" She sighed, chuckling softly, "and Dale reminds me of my dad" her expression turned sad at the memory of her recent loss, "what you reading?" she asked before he could question her on her father.

"Some crime shit" he chucked the book towards her and she read the blurb.

"Seems shit" she laughed, softly placing it back near his side.

"You don't have to sit here with me ya know" he mumbled, looking away from her, she frowned at this.

"Do you want me to go?" she asked, a little hurt even if she tried to tell herself she wasn't.

"No-" he blurted, before covering it up, "it's up to you" he shrugged, not meeting her gaze.

"Well I'd like to stay" she told him confidently, "if that's okay?" she looked at him nervously, but he just shrugged and nodded.

Ailene and Daryl sat there in silence for a while, it was comfortable, she didn't feel like she needed to say anything. Eventually she did want to say something though, what he had done the other day, risking his life for Sophia- it was incredibly brave.

"Hey" she said softly, bringing his attention to her, "you were really brave yesterday, you did good"

"Anyone would have done it" he started poking his arrow through the mosquito net, Ailene sighed.

"Hmm, I'm not so sure" Ailene reasoned, "you're the one that was out there, don't think that what you did was nothing, because it wasn't and I know it meant a lot to Carol"

Daryl just looked at her intently, she gave him a small smile realising that he didn't like being complemented.

"I think she's still out there" Daryl said quietly, in an almost vulnerable way, Ailene nodded at him.

"Me too" she agreed, "Shane's been trying to get Rick to give up" she explained, "I cannat be around him right now, I think I might smack him"

"Pfft" Daryl exhaled, "I'd like to see you try that"

"I'm tough okay" she retorted, trying to convince him of the fact, "I could take you down". Daryl just looked at her, amusement gracing his lips into a smile, he let out a small laugh and looked away from her mock-serious expression. "What's so funny?" she asked, smiling at him, "I'm deadly serious"

"You're more likely to hurt yourself than anyone else" Daryl noted, pointing the arrow at her.

"This is very true" Ailene sighed, "but Shane really winds me up"

"Join the club" Daryl grunted, "he's pissing me off" Ailene nodded, sitting there deep in thought, she needed to tell him, she had to.

"Daryl?" she asked, swallowing with nerves, "Can I tell you something?"

"Sure" he said, slowly, suspicion deep in his voice and what she thought was nerves.

"Erm" she looked down at her hands, "there's-" she was interrupted by Dale, who knocked on the tent wall politely.

"Hey Daryl, how you feeling?" he asked the man laid on his camp bed.

"Not bad" Daryl replied, shrugging, his eyes glancing at Ailene.

"Good" Dale smiled before looking at Ailene, "Ailene, can I speak to you for a minute?"

"Of course darling" Ailene smiled at the older man, getting up from her camp chair and following him out of the tent. She paused at the door of the tent, looking back at Daryl, "I still need to talk to you" he frowned, but nodded at her.

Ailene followed Dale in walking further away from camp, out the way of the tents and prying ears.

"I spoke to Glenn" Dale clutched at the rifle sling over his shoulder, "he just got back from a run, with a run-in from a walker"

"Oh gosh is he okay?" she asked, looking around to try and see him.

"He's fine" Dale reassured her, putting a hand on her shoulder, "Maggie is pretty shaken up though"

"Oh no" Ailene sighed, "I hope she's alright"

"She will be" Dale sighed, "but it reassured Glenn that the walkers are dangerous, and he even thinks Maggie agrees with him, whether she likes it or not"

"Well hopefully they'll come to realisation without anyone getting hurt" Ailene put her hands on her hips, wondering how in the world this situation will solve itself.

"We can hope" Dale sighed, "anyway, Glenn wants to be the one to tell the group, he-"

Dale was cut off by Glenn walking up to them, Ailene smiled at him warmly.

"How are you doing?" she asked, concerned, "is Maggie alright?" Glenn sighed, and mirrored her stance.

"She's alright, I guess" Glenn exhaled, "I think she knows I want to tell everyone, after today"

"What's she said?" Ailene asked, concerned.

"She doesn't want me to tell anyone" Glenn, "But I think she knows that it's the right thing to do?" he phrased it at a question, looking at the two of them.

"I think you're right" Dale nodded, sadly.

"I'm scared at what Shane will do" Ailene voiced her main concern out loud, to her surprise the two men nodded slowly.

"I think we're going to have to make sure we all approach this carefully" Dale warned, and Ailene felt a swarm of nerves in her stomach- this was not going to go down well.

* * *

Ailene hardly spoke to anyone for the rest of the day, the nerves of confrontation swilling in her. With all her acting up, she actually hated arguments, but it was still true that she was Irish and she definitely had a temper. It took a while to crack her humoured and kind temperament, but when whoever it was did, would be caught in an explosion of rage.

Carl had come and told her about his shooting practice, he'd done well, along with a lot of the group.

"Where's Shane?" Ailene asked Rick, who was stood with the proud Carl.

"He went with Andrea to check a town out, nearby" Rick explained, "I'm going to go find Lori, I haven't seen her since we got back"

"Um I think she's in your tent" Ailene frowned, remembering briefly seeing the pretty woman.

"Uh, okay thanks" Rick smiled at her and walked off, leaving her with Carl.

"Hey sweetie" she looked down at the boy, "wanna help with dinner?" she looked up and saw Carol, the woman nodded in encouragement.

"Yeah sure" Carl smiled, and they both joined Carol by the work-bench to help cook.

"You" Carol instructed him, "can open these tins" she pushed the cans towards the boy and gave him the tin-opener as Ailene aided the woman in chopping veg.

"How are you?" Ailene asked with a smile to the woman, "shooting practice any good?"

"It was alright" Carol shrugged, "Shane was strutting around like a damn peacock though" she whispered to her, putting a hand over her mouth, "I shouldn't have said that"

"Yes you should!" Ailene laughed at her, "that's brilliant" she shook her head in admiration at the woman, "Carol I think I love you". Carol laughed at her, smiling fondly at the younger Irish woman.

"I'll put you on my list" she shrugged, with a grin chopping up the vegetables. "It was a good stress relief I'm not going to lie" Carol told her, with a frown, "I think you would have enjoyed it"

"Yeah it's-um- a shame" Ailene looked down, "Dale was teaching us how to fix the RV" she sighed, hating lying to the woman.

"Hmm okay" Carol told her, not believing her excuse, "you know you can talk to me" she assured her, "about anything"

"Thank you" Ailene smiled, "I-I wish I could tell you this, but" she sighed, turning back to chopping, "let's just say you'll probably find out soon"

Ailene left it at that, they spoke about other things and laughed with Carl until the food was ready. The meal was tense, only to Ailene, Dale and Glenn, who all sat there occasionally looking at each other for when Glenn would decide to step up and tell them. Almost too-quickly dinner had finished, and Glenn's face was one of disappointment and relief.

"What are we going to do?" Ailene hissed at the two of them as they washed up their dishes together, feeling like the biggest conspirators since Guy Fawkes and his band of fools.

"Tomorrow morning" Dale informed Glenn, with reluctance the young man nodded.

"I think us three should be the ones to take watch tonight" Ailene informed the men, "because we know where the real threat is"

"Agreed" Glenn sighed, looking around them, "Ailene do you want to take first watch?" she nodded, looking between the three of them.

"Yeah, I'll go tell Rick" she sighed, "he deserves a night off anyway"

* * *

 **Thank you for reading, please let me know what you think!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey everyone, thanks for the favourites and follows- I'm glad you're reading! I hope you like this chapter, its when all the shit hits the fan, but we get more Daryl/Ailene interaction in this, along with a bit of backstory.**

 **Thanks for baring with the story and enjoy!**

* * *

Ailene stood with Dale, they were both incredibly nervous but they knew it was time. She looked at Glenn, he couldn't chicken out of telling the group-not now. She saw him look at Maggie, and then he looked at the two of them, obviously torn in what to do, Dale nodded his head and Ailene gave him a weak smile. Finally Glenn nodded, swallowing and standing up, this was it.

"Um guys?" he stood there awkwardly, catching the group's attention from the breakfast they were eating. "So the barn's full of walkers" Ailene rolled her eyes at his bluntness, but she knew that she would have put it exactly the same.

They all sat there shocked, thinking it was some kind of joke, before pandemonium ensued. Shane was the first to grab his knife and sprint towards the barn, the rest of the group following, Ailene sighed running with them.

Shane peered through the doorway, she heard the growl and saw him flinch back, positively fizzing with anger. He marched over to Rick, who was stood their confused and concerned.

"You cannot tell me you're alright with this?" he spat at the team leader, busting past him.

"No I'm not" Rick growled, "but we are guests here" Ailene was relieved Rick was seeing sense.

"Oh GoD" Shane exclaimed, angrily, "this is our lives man!"

Glenn told him to quieten, he didn't want to rile up the creatures, and definitely didn't want to grab attention of Hershel and the Greene family.

"We can't just sweep this under the rug" Andrea argued to Rick, Ailene was stood near Carol and Daryl, further back from Shane.

"Aint right" Shane shrugged, "not remote" he was pacing, "we either gotta go in there, we gotta make things right, or we just gotta go" Ailene's heart sank, they couldn't leave Sophia. "Now we have been talking about Fort Benning for a long time"

"We can't go" Rick interrupted.

"Why Rick?" Shane spat, "Why?" Ailene wanted to step forward, she wanted to argue, she was getting there but she didn't have the anger yet.

"Because my daughter's still out there" Carol stepped forward, Ailene inhaled, they couldn't leave Sophia, they couldn't.

"OK" Shane sighed and spluttered, "I think it's time that we all start to just consider the other possibility"

Ailene's anger started simmering, he was pushing her towards her edge.

"Shane, we're not leaving Sophia behind!" he told the other cop. Daryl stepped past Ailene, towards Shane.

"I'm close to finding this girl" he spoke up, "I just found her damn doll a few days ago"

"You found her doll, Daryl!" Shane exclaimed, "That's what you did, you found a doll!" Ailene bristled at his callousness.

"You don't know what the hell you're talking about" Daryl shouted, moving further towards Shane with anger, Carol tried to hold him back and Ailene moved towards them.

"HEY" Shane yelled, "Look-I'm just saying what needs to be said here" Shane shouted, "Now if you get a good lead, it's in the first forty-eight hours, after that it don't matter" he was rambling and Rick was trying to calm him, whilst Lori looked at him in disbelief.

"Shane!" Rick yelled, but the man kept going.

"Let me tell you something else, man" he turned and pointed at Daryl, "If she was alive out there, saw you coming, all methed out with your buck knife and geek ears round your neck, she would run in the other direction, man!"

Ailene snapped, so did everyone else. Daryl moved to attack the man and Rick tried to stop it.

"STOP!" Ailene yelled, her Irish accent standing out from the rest of the group, meaning it carried, meaning they stopped. Her anger had peaked, and she wasn't going to stay quiet anymore. "I have just about had it with you Shane!" she yelled, causing the group's attention to focus on her, "you think that just because people don't agree with you their opinion doesn't matter?" she glared at him, he was glaring back. "No." she sighed, "we talk about things in a civilised way, because no matter what other shit is going on, we can still be civilised. We spoke to Hershel yesterday" she gestured at Dale and Shane stepped towards her slightly, angry.

"You knew?" he spat, looking her up and down.

"Hell yes I knew! But Glenn wanted to tell you" she explained, "now Hershel's family are in there, and he still believes- no matter how wrong he may be- that there is a chance for a cure" she sighed, pointing at the barn slightly. "If you knew someone in that barn, like he does, and you thought that there was a chance for a cure, you'd think shooting them was _murder_ " she sighed, dropping her hand, "now he doesn't understand, but execution by firing squad is _not_ the way to get someone to, it would just piss them off! Royally!" she shouted. "So what you need to do is stop all this self-pitying bullshit you've got going on, you're going to brush your ego aside and open your ears!" she yelled again, telling him off harsher than any other person she ever had. "This isn't your land, this is Hershel's land" she gestured wildly with her hands, "this is his farm, and that's his family in there" she pointed at the barn, "that lock has held for however long they've been in there, so it will hold for a few more hours whilst Rick or whoever tries to reason with Hershel" she then turned her pointing finger at Shane. "So you're going to shut the fuck up and you're going to get out there and look for Sophia, because she is the priority right now" he made a noise to protest, "AH!" she snapped, "you're going to shut. The. Fuck. Up. And get out" she growled through gritted teeth.

Shane moved towards her aggressively, she stood her ground, standing up straight and putting her hands on her hips. She stared him down, as he glared at her, before storming back off towards camp. She followed him with her eyes, before inhaling and exhaling deeply. Ailene turned back to the group, who were all looking at her with wide-eyes and shocked expressions.

"and that" she spoke in a softer voice, "is why you never piss off an Irish woman" she looked at them, "ever".

With that Ailene thought she had made her point, and walked off towards the house, knowing that she could go and sit by the trees on the other side, near the stables. She caught sight of Maggie, who had been stood, not so far from the outburst, Maggie gave her an annoyed look.

"I'm sorry" was all Ailene could say to her as she passed, but Maggie caught her arm.

"Thanks for sticking up for my Dad" she said softly.

"It's the right thing to do" Ailene nodded, before continuing the walk to the trees on the other side of camp.

* * *

It had been quite a while since her outburst and Ailene had been sat pretty close to the stable, up against a tree, when she saw Carol walking over to her.

She was holding two mugs, and her eyes were puffy, like she had been crying.

"What's wrong?" Ailene got up, walking over to the woman, she just shook her head and gave her the mug. They both sat down again, up against the tree, in silence for a while.

"I'm impressed" Carol sighed, looking at her even though they were sat incredibly close.

"With what?" Ailene frowned.

"You're pretty scary when you want to be" she told her, "the way you took on Shane like that, thank you for standing up for Sophia"

"Yeah he's been pissing me off for days" Ailene sighed, taking a drink, "we're not giving up on your little girl"

"That's what Daryl thinks" Carol looked down with a sniff, "he-erm"

"What did he do?" Ailene eyed her, "is that why you're upset?"

"I-I just don't want to put anyone more at risk" Carol's eyes were streaming again, "maybe Shane's right, we don't know if we'll ever find her"

"Carol listen to me, we're not giving up" she put their mugs down, and took her hands, "Shane is just looking out for himself, he's not with it" she shook her head, "we all want to find her- Carol I can't imagine what you're going through, but you can't worry about the rest of us, because we want to be out there, we want to look"

"But Daryl-" she tried to interrupt.

"Daryl really wants to look for her" Ailene sighed, "what did he say?"

"He called me a dumb bitch" Carol exhaled, looking away from her.

"Well that's not right" Ailene frowned, "what was happening when he said it?"

"He was trying to go out, but he was too injured, I said I didn't want to lose him too" she picked up her mug, wiping away her tears.

"Ah" Ailene picked her mug up as well, "it's just because you're letting him know you care, I don't think he meant it… how could he?"

Ailene put her arm around Carol's shoulders, and the woman lent her head on her shoulder. She rubbed circles on Carol's arms soothingly, sitting quietly for a while.

"I'm so afraid, Ailene" Carol spoke, suddenly. Ailene's heart broke, it wasn't like Carol to speak like this, she was so gentle, so together.

"I know" Ailene whispered, "but keep your faith, I'm sure she's still out there"

"I should have gone after her" Carol whispered, tears streaming down her face, "I'm a terrible mother, I-"

"Shh" Ailene rubbed her shoulder, "No, please don't say that" she desperately tried to reassure the woman, "You haven't given up, you're here, you're fighting for her- you're a brilliant mother and don't you ever think otherwise"

"What if she's one of them?" Carol whispered.

"Let's not think about that" Ailene smiled, "we're not going anywhere, we're not giving up"

They sat frozen in their small embrace for a long time, before Ailene's attention was brought towards footprints of someone approaching.

"Hey" she said softly to Daryl, Carol opened her eyes and sat up. Daryl was stood there awkwardly and looked at Carol.

"Can I show you something?" he asked the mother. Carol looked shocked but nodded, Ailene took her mug off her and watched as Carol got up and walked towards Daryl. Before Daryl walked off, he nudged Ailene's booted foot with his, she looked up at him. "You-erm" sighing and shifting on his feet, "you did good" he told her, Ailene frowned, confused.

"What?"

"With Shane" he said, nervously, "you defended me, thanks" Ailene was shocked.

"You were right" she shrugged, "and he was being an arse"

Daryl nodded, and then proceeded in walking off with Carol, she hoped he would apologise.

* * *

Ailene saw Rick and Hershel exit the house and walk over to get something from the barn, they caught sight of her on their way out.

"Hi" she said weakly to the men, getting up from her sitting position.

"Ailene" Rick said softly, she was waiting for him to tell her that she'd been out of order. "What you did back there- thank you" Ailene's eyebrows shot up, "you stood up for me, Sophia and Hershel here- albeit in a way I never expected you to" he let out a small laugh. Ailene smiled at this, she knew she could be extremely fiery when she wanted to be.

"Rick and Maggie told me what you said" Hershel commented, "you stuck by what I said to you yesterday, that takes guts, thank you"

"This is your farm, Sir" she replied, "Shane was in the wrong"

"I wondered" Hershel paused and looked at the odd things in his hand that she could only think would be used to restrain something, "I'm heading out to show Rick something, would you like to come?"

"Absolutely" she replied brightly to the old man, but looked curiously at Rick, he just shrugged in response.

It was during their journey to a muddy pond that Hershel half-revealed what he wanted to show them

Ailene was not a happy bunny.

She could understand Hershel's perspective, but even she knew he was blind to the truth. The whole way he was implying that what they were doing would be bringing more walkers back to the farm to put in the goddamn barn.

"The silt on the bottom is like glue" Hershel told them as they rounded the pond, "you just sink in" he turned and followed Jimmy. Ailene grasped Rick's wrist and looked at him with a worried expression, he nodded and patted her hand to try and reassure her.

It didn't work.

"That's Lou Bush" Hershel continued, gesturing to the walker.

"You knew him?" Rick asked, his voice guarded.

"Lou as in Louise" they followed the man under a tree, "She has a farm up the road" Ailene paled, he was speaking in the present tense, he could never be convinced. "Sweet corn mostly, worked Hapman's bar on weekends" she saw the walkers thrashing about, "the man, I don't know him, but the coveralls… I've been to where he worked"

Ailene exchanged a sad look with Rick, he was just as shocked she was.

"How many have you killed?" Hershel asked, Ailene inwardly winced.

"Too many to count" Rick muttered.

"Can you stop?" Hershel asked him, and then looked at Ailene. Her and Rick just remained silent, she didn't think Hershel wanted the answer to that question. "There are people out there who haven't been in their right minds, people who I believe can be restored"

"You're not talking about the walkers, are you?" Rick asked, and Ailene swallowed, her newfound confidence since her outburst had dissipated in the face of this poor man's blind belief.

"It doesn't matter if you see them as human beings anymore, but if you and your people are going to stay here, that's how you're going to have to treat them" Hershel informed them both, and to her surprise, Ailene found herself agreeing with him. It may not be their reasoning, but Hershel had his beliefs and who were they to force theirs on him, in his home of all places? "My farm, my barn, my say"

Hershel handed the restraint to Rick, Ailene was selfishly relieved he hadn't chosen her for the task. Her relief was short-lived however, as the walkers were a lot stronger than any of them had anticipated. Jimmy got hold of the female walker, or Lou as Hershel had called her, him and Rick had managed to pull her out alright, but when she was handed to Hershel she began thrashing a lot more than before. Ailene took a deep breath and went over to help the old man, to prevent the creature from overpowering him.

"How many times would he do this?" Ailene grunted, trying to stay out of the way of the clawing arms, she really hoped the group wouldn't see this when they got back- all hell would break loose.

"Every time one wandered onto the property" Hershel shouted, so that Rick could hear, "Otis would get him into the barn" Ailene was impressed, catching a walker without being killed was a pretty big feat, and from the amount that were in the barn, Otis had been one busy chap. "Now we have to"

"What happens when the barn gets full?" Rick asked, in doing so, slipping on the saturated mud. This meant the male walker could overpower poor Jimmy, the young man fell half-into the water, there was panic as Ailene looked at Hershel to see if he could managed before she let go and rushed to help the boy out of the grasp of the walker's hungry jaws. She pulled him up to safety and then grasped the pole Rick was using to keep the walker out of reach, she helped him to his feet, before letting go and standing there to take a breath.

"Lead him Rick" Hershel instructed, Ailene bristled, this was madness. "Jimmy and Ailene will spot for us" Hershel kept giving an incredulous Rick instructions, as Jimmy head out in front of the two. Ailene refused to leave Rick's side, knowing she had a knife on her just in case, and hoping she would have the balls to do what was necessary if the situation arose.

"This is easy?!" Rick yelled, struggling with the walker.

* * *

The trip back to the farm was not an easy one, it was slow and it was scary- Ailene was not loving it. She stumbled, Rick tripped, walkers were hungry and Hershel was wrong. That was all she could conclude and when they got to the fence-line near the barn, Ailene's stomach knotted, she hoped that none of the group could see them. Once clear of the trees though, she knew that was never going to happen.

She saw them running, but kept her eyes on Rick.

"Rick we're going to have some trouble here my friend" she warned, making sure Hershel heard her too, "Hershel I hate to say this, but they're armed"

"What the hell are you doing?!" Shane yelled.

"Shane just back off" Rick grunted, still struggling with the walker, Ailene stepped forward to help him, knowing that he was in danger.

"Are you kidding me?!" Shane was still yelling, "You see what they're holding on to?" he shouted towards the group and strangely Ailene's eyes were filled with tears, she looked at Maggie and shook her head.

"I see who I'm holding on to!" Hershel countered.

"Shane just let us do this and then we can talk" Rick tried to reason as they continued their way to the barn.

"What do you want to talk about Rick?" Shane was off his absolute nut, angry and Ailene could see why, the walkers were getting more and more agitated, "these things aren't sick, they're not people, they're dead!" He had two handguns, one in his waistband, Ailene moved away from Rick and towards the front of the walker, trying to lead it towards the barn quicker. She felt a hand grab her and she looked to see Daryl giving her a dark expression, he tried to pull her back but she shrugged him off.

"Aint gotta feel nothing for them, because all they do?" Shane was still rambling, "THEY KILL" he yelled, "these things right here" Shane got in her way at that point, she stumbled near his foot, putting her hands on him to steady herself.

"Shane please don't do this" she pleaded with him quietly, he pushed her upwards.

"Why don't you just take this and get out of here" he thumped one of the handguns onto her chest, causing it to make a hollow, slapping sound. "No one wants you here, you're just trouble" he spat, and she looked hurt for a second, before putting the gun in her waistband and trying to continue leading the walker.

"These are the things that killed Amy!" Shane bellowed, "They killed Otis! They're going to kill all of us!"

"Shane shut up!" Rick screamed over him, the noise was riling the walkers up as one of its hands came dangerously close to Ailene's neck.

"Hey Hershel, man" Shane's voice was a bit calmer, and this made the hairs on Ailene's neck stand up, something was wrong, "let me ask you something could a living breathing person" he pulled out his second handgun and Ailene knew what he was going to do. "Could they walk away from this?"

He shot her, the walker Hershel had known, shot her right in the middle. People were screaming at Shane to stop, but he kept going, Ailene's ears were ringing from the rounds echoing around the trees.

"Enough!" Rick yelled at Shane, Ailene caught Hershel's expression it was almost unreadable- he was in shock.

"Hey, you're right man, that is enough" Shane spat, shooting her in the head.

They stood there, not knowing what to do, Ailene couldn't move. She was brought to her senses when the second walker managed to grab hold of her shirt, she was pulled by Daryl again, who had his rifle raised. She walked out of the way, towards Beth and Maggie, and watched in horror as Shane marched to the barn's sealed door.

"Enough risking our lives for a little girl who's gone!" he growled, Ailene reached out to touch Carol who was so shocked at Shane's malicious tone. "Enough living next to a barn full of things that are trying to kill us!" Shane shifted, "enough! Rick it aint like it was before." Rick was just stood there, he couldn't do anything to stop Shane's spiral, he was already falling and there was no coming back from this. "Now if y'all wanna live, if you wanna survive, you gotta fight for it!" Shane was screaming, it would have been funny if it weren't so horrific. "I'm talking about fighting, right here, right now!"

With that he ran to the barn doors, and what ensued was a blur, Rick was yelling and Hershel was unresponsive. Ailene felt Beth move to cling to her, the woman, Patricia, was close behind her, staring in wide-eyed horror as Shane began to bust the lock on the barn.

They walkers came out slowly at first and the members of the group that were armed stepped up. Ailene looked at Daryl who was focused on the barn, his gun raised, his eyes flickered to her and she shook her head some of the tears that had filled her eyes fell.

Then the shooting began.

Beth moved forward with Patricia, pulling Ailene with them, they fell to the ground wailing, knowing her mother was one of those in the barn, she grabbed the girls face.

"Beth don't look" she tried to catch her attention, "don't look sweetie"

Ailene knew the danger and she had to stand up, she had to protect these people, even if it weren't right. She looked at the barn to see several already dead, dead, but more were coming. Ailene grabbed Hershel's shoulders.

"I'm sorry I have to" she told him, "I'm so sorry"

"Maggie?" Glenn pleaded, and she nodded to him.

"Okay" Maggie told him, "go!" she told Ailene who wiped her tears and started to move.

Ailene stood up in front of them, shielding them from any chance of attack, she moved forward to stand between T-Dog and Daryl, chambered a round and fired. She hit one in the head, it went down quickly. It was awful, Ailene's tears kept coming, knowing how much this was hurting people, and selfishly, she hadn't gotten used to killing things- she was so new to this world.

Finally she couldn't cope anymore, having put down three herself, she turned her back. She couldn't carry on with this, it was too execution style. She looked at Rick with a tear-stained face, seeing that the walker that had been in his snare-pole was now dead on the floor, she shook her head and he walked towards her.

Rick put his hand on her shoulders and shook her, pulling her into a rough embrace- she got the feeling that it was calming him down, just as much as her.

Finally it stopped, Ailene turned in Rick's grasp to see half of the firing squad had turned back around. T-Dog and Glenn looked horrified, and Daryl was staring at Ailene, his eyes burning into her. She pulled free of Rick and they looked at each other, they were the only ones who had been with Hershel today, they were the only ones who knew how he really felt- his wife and stepson had just been shot in the most brutal way- this would have destroyed the old man.

Their attention was pulled back to the barn, assessing the situation of just how many walkers had just been shot, they heard a small growling. There must be one more, Ailene braced herself for another slaying but nothing could prepare her for what was about to happen.

Ailene had seen a photograph that Carol had shown her, one of the pretty little girl that was missing. So she knew, when that walker stepped out of the barn, cowering from the light, she knew that was Sophia.

Her heart jumped into her mouth and Ailene's stomach twisted in a ball of empathy and anguish at the cries of Carol.

"Sophia" she cried, from behind them, running past Rick and Ailene, who tried to grab hold of her. She missed though, thankfully Daryl caught her, pulling her to the ground. She kept crying, Ailene's heart was breaking even more- how could it end like this? All this time looking for that poor child and she was in there, suffering, all this time. The tears were back and Ailene held out her hand to Rick's wrist, squeezing it, he was in shock and his eyes were also filled with tears. He looked at her and she nodded, knowing what he was thinking.

He took a breath and moved forwards, taking his gun from its holster. Ailene felt a wave of respect for the man, as she tried to stop herself from being overcome with self-indulgent sobs, this was Carol's loss, not hers. She couldn't help it though, the feelings of loss that she had experienced in her other life, the one before this one, were mixed with the feelings of empathy she had with Carol. They all came crashing down on her like violent waves that threatened to cause her to lose it completely, but she bit them down- after. After this, she could come undone, but not yet.

The gunshot was loud, shattering, it caused her to jump, and then it was over.

The scene was devastating, the only noise being sobs, mainly from Carol.

"Don't look" Daryl was trying to pick her up, "don't look" he said as she pushed him off her. Ailene was too shocked to try and stop her, Carol needed to be alone, she ran back up the track and away from the massacre that had just taken place.

Because that's what it was, a massacre, even Shane couldn't deny that.

Beth was sobbing now and she pushed past every one of the group trying to get to her dead mother on the floor. Ailene snapped out of it then, she rushed forward to be there for the girl whom she'd struck up a friendship with.

"Mom?" she whispered as she rolled a body off the dead woman lying on the floor, crying she leant down to her. Ailene was within a few feet when the walker started moving, she grabbed at Beth's hair and Beth screamed. Ailene ran forward and pulled Beth, the rest of the group coming to help, she pulled and pulled as T-Dog and Andrea killed the walker that used to be her mother.

Surprisingly Beth shoved herself into Ailene's neck, hiding there, Ailene put her arms around the girl and pulled her away, letting her sob into her. Before Hershel came up behind them and patted Ailene's back, she looked at him with the tears still streaming and in an almighty warm gesture he reached up and stroked her hair with a soft smile. It almost caused Ailene to lose it completely, but she just let go of Beth, who happily fell into her father's grasp, Jimmy, her boyfriend, rushing to her.

The Greene family walked away and Ailene stood there not knowing what to do. She had tried to do as much as she could for the group, but right now, she wanted to be selfish, in fact she needed to be selfish because she was completely losing herself and she couldn't do it in front of anyone.

She walked towards the nearest person, it ended up being Daryl, and pushed her handgun against his chest. Her eyes were not in the present, her eyes were on that night, that night nearly a week ago- when her father had gone down so heavily. She moved to walk away but he softly grabbed her arm, pulling her back to him.

"I-I" she stammered but she couldn't get her words out, her voice felt alien to her and everything sounded like white noise. She just squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head, before opening them and seeing his expression, one filled with concern and sadness, she just patted his hand on her arm before pulling away again. This time he didn't stop her, she walked over to one of the other fences, putting her arm on it she jumped and cleared it easily, walking off towards a couple of trees far away from camp so that she could do what she needed to.

* * *

Ailene had broken into a run when she thought she was out of sight, running to what she thought was safety, safety so that she could unleash the emotions swirling inside her.

The tears were falling and sobs wracking her body as her feet pounded the grassy ground, she felt bile rise in her throat, she'd stupidly wound herself up so much that she was out of control. The bile became too much and she threw up, coughing and spluttering as she did so, her hands on her knees she couldn't help but more came up. Once she finished she carried on walking to the trees, knowing she could climb up them and sit there in peace and out of the way.

The climbing was pretty easy, Ailene had been a little explorer when she was young, tree climbing being her favourite. She sat up on the thickest, lowest branch and leaned her head, closing her eyes as the tears started to slow.

Her thoughts drifted to that night, three days before she was transported into this world, the night her father had died. She had been cooking dinner for him, it was a regular thing her sisters and her did ever since their mother had died a few months before, in a world where cancer was the disease to be afraid of. She and her dad had been laughing and joking until she heard the thump of his body hitting the floor. Ailene had rushed to her father's aid, being the only other one in the house, she had grabbed the phone on the way- dialling for an ambulance.

He'd had a heart attack and Ailene used the first-aid skills she had learnt for her teaching job in providing him with CPR. She'd had to do it for over an hour and a half, living so far out in the country combined with health shortages, the ambulances had been few on the ground. She had had to keep it together until they got there, alone in the house, exhaustingly pumping her father's chest, desperately trying to keep any flicker of him alive.

When the paramedics had got there they declared him dead, on his kitchen floor, and she wouldn't even get to go to his funeral.

Ailene didn't know when she fell asleep, but she did, softly dosing against the crook of the tree.

"Hey" was the call that woke her, it was Daryl, "what you doing up there?"

"Feeling pathetically sorry for myself" she answered honestly, rubbing her eyes, "how's Carol doing?"

"Not great" he shrugged, and Ailene nodded- that was to be expected, "but she's alright"

"She's so brave" she noted, and smiled down at him. He looked up at her before deciding to climb up the tree and join her, he slipped slightly, but managed to make it. Ailene held onto the trunk and reached out to him, he took her hand and she hauled him onto the branch.

"How are you doing?" she asked him, and he looked shocked.

"I'm fine I guess" he grumbled, but she knew it wasn't true. In a bold move, she reached out her hand and took one of his into it, rubbing circles on it with her thumb. He'd frozen at her touch, but he was relaxing into it, with a sigh he looked out across the field, as Ailene's eyes were on his handsome face.

"Do the group need me to do anything?" she sighed, "I feel like I'm passing up on duties"

"Just take a breather" he instructed her, looking over at her, "you do plenty"

"I should go and see Carol" she shifted in her seat, but he just squeezed her hand.

"Just stay here for a minute" he told her in what she felt quite an out of character tone. "I told Carol, I told her how upset you were, she knows that you're thinking about her" Daryl sighed, and let out a small laugh, "she even asked me to look for you, make sure you were okay"

"That woman is a fucking angel" Ailene sighed, smiling at Daryl.

"Are you okay though?" he asked, "and not jus' cause I have to report back" he nudged her shoulder.

"It's not about me though" she huffed, and then she saw Dale on top of the RV and swallowed knowing the tears were threatening to fall again. "I lost my dad" she blurted, "I know that you don't believe my story about waking up here, but three days before you guys found me in that field I was trying to save my dad's life" Ailene rolled her eyes, "I'm sorry- I shouldn't have told you it's silly, I'm just sick of people dying"

"Ailene I'm sorry" he said softly, "its shit, this is all shit" he said to her, and she nodded. He made no move to pull his hand away from her grasp, and it was now his turn to rub circles on her hand, she pushed her luck even further and leant her head on his shoulder. Daryl just sat there, rubbing her hand and shifting so that she could get more comfortable.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! Let me know what you thought :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hellooo! Thank you all for the reviews, the follows and favourites- I'm glad that people are liking it so far- I hope you enjoy this chapter and stick with it!**

* * *

Daryl had remained there with her for a while, before she had shifted from their position and wiped her face.

"I'm going to find Carol" she told him, and he nodded, even though he felt a loss of contact. She pulled her hand out of his grasp and smiled at him weakly shifting around him to climb back down the tree.

He watched her walk back to camp, a wave of emotion overcame him, something he'd never experienced before- Daryl didn't understand why he felt so awful at the events of the day.

He shouldn't care, but he did.

He couldn't stand the state Carol had been in, it had actually hurt him to see her in so much pain, she was one of the group that actually gave a shit, who treated him like an equal. He couldn't even describe how awful it had been to see Ailene cry like that, she had surprised him the entire day. The way she had yelled at Shane that morning and pushed him out the way to stop him being hit by the ex-cop, and even when she was clearly devastated she stepped up to protect the group.

He was even annoyed at himself that she had gone to Rick for comfort, he didn't understand why he'd felt so angry at seeing her being held by him like that. It hadn't meant anything, they were clearly just friends, but he had been the one who wanted to comfort her. He was relieved when Carol had suggested he go and find her, not because he didn't want to sit with Carol- he felt extremely comfortable with her, but he was so worried about her. He couldn't get rid of that look she had on her face, she was not used to this world and he wanted to be there for her more than he'd wanted to be there for anyone in his entire life.

That scared the hell out of him.

Daryl couldn't stay near the group anymore, he needed to get away from them, it hurt too much to be near them. He'd put his life on the line, put everything into finding that little girl and it had turned out she was dead all the time and he hated it. That child was the first real purpose he had had in the group, he thought she was alive- how could he have been so wrong?

Daryl huffed, climbing down the tree, he'd decided what he needed to do.

* * *

Daryl had managed to pack up most of his stuff onto his bike, but he sighed, seeing all of Ailene's stuff out on the ground like that, he just piled it up, somewhat neatly next to his bike.

"Hey" his attention was diverted from putting the tent down to Ailene who had walked up behind him. "Are you alright?"

"Fine" he grumbled, pretty coldly.

"You moving house?" she asked, a small, nervous laugh escaping her lips. He finally straightened up and turned to look at her, she was fiddling with her fingers and looked concerned.

"Yeah" he told her, "I don't like being this close to everyone"

"Okay" she nodded, "I can help you move your stuff if you want?" Daryl frowned, why wasn't she mad? He just stared at her, feeling like a complete ass for kicking her out, but she didn't blame him.

"You're not annoyed?" he asked her and she smiled, stepping towards him slightly.

"Not at all" she moved past him and started taking the tent poles out, "you do what you need to do"

"You don't have to-" he sighed, rubbing the back of his neck, "Um, you don't have to find somewhere else to sleep, if you don't want to?"

She looked up at him with a kind smile and nodded.

"Well it would be a bit of a pain" she said softly, before pointing at him, "I'm not doing all the work, come on lazy-pants"

He rolled his eyes and smiled slightly, walking around the other side of the tent to put the thing down. They packed it away easily and Daryl slung it next to his bike along with Ailene's things which she had packed up in her rucksacks.

"I'm just going to go and have a word with Rick" she said, spying him getting ready to leave camp for some reason. He nodded and watched as she jogged off towards him.

* * *

"Rick!" Ailene called, causing the distracted cop's attention to her, he was frowning, "are you alright?"

"We're going to get Hershel, he's gone off into town" Ailene's face froze.

"Alone?" she asked, frightened for the old man, Rick nodded concerned.

"What's up?" he asked her, obviously itching to get going, so she got to the point.

"Daryl's pulling away from the group" she sighed, "He's moving his camp out of the way, but he's letting me join him"

"Okay" Rick frowned and looked down with a sigh.

"I think it's this whole Sophia thing, it's hit him hard" she explained, "he'll come round, but for now- I-I I won't let him go too far"

"Thanks Ailene" he moved towards her and put a hand on her arm, "are you alright?"

"I will be" she swallowed, "we just have to get on with it, don't we?" she shrugged and he smiled slightly, nodding.

"Absolutely" he told her, "don't you be pulling away either"

"I wouldn't dream of it" she smiled, "good luck with Hershel" she told him, before turning and walking back to Daryl. She got the feeling that her and Rick had bonded, through the pain they had suffered at understanding Hershel's desire to keep the walkers, they were the ones who understood each other.

Ailene grabbed up her rucksacks and the tent, before nodding to Daryl, who mounted his bike and started it- leading the way to their new camp. She walked in the tracks that his bike had left in the grass, it was a few hundred metres away from the main camp, she could still see everyone and what they were up to.

* * *

Daryl was extremely quiet whilst setting up camp, in fact he went about most of it himself, not really letting her do much, so she sat next to his bike, admiring it.

"Did you say this was your brother's bike?" she called to him, looking over at Daryl who was shoving his bedding into the tent.

"Yeah" he grunted to her.

"It's pretty, I always loved bikes when I was younger" she commented, touching the wheel.

"You ever have one?" he asked with a quirked eyebrow, she laughed.

"Jesus Christ no" she rolled her eyes, "you think my mam would let me out the house?" shaking her head with a smile, "Irish mothers are on a whole other planet"

"Hmm" he grumped, turning away from her, slightly, she got up and walked over to him.

"I'm sorry about your brother, ya know- it's really shitty" she told him sincerely, bending down to put her bedding into the tent, with a strange sense of Deja-Vu.

"Erm-thanks" he looked away from her awkwardly, "This whole thing is pretty crap" he sighed, to which she nodded.

"Do you know what's worse?" she frowned.

"What?" he asked, confused.

"There's no fucking whiskey" she grinned at him and entered the tent.

"Or smokes" he joked after her.

"Typical, zombie apocalypse screwing us out of drink and tabs" she laughed, rolling her eyes.

* * *

Ailene had left Daryl to his own devices for a while, sensing that he wanted to be alone, she took a walk off into the field. Spotting Dale taking a stroll as well, she headed towards him with a small smile on her face, hoping that he would be happy to talk to her.

"Hi" she greeted him, looking up from his thoughts he gave her a small smile in return.

"How're you doing?" he asked her, kindly.

"It's not really about me, is it?" she asked, "but okay I guess" she shrugged, looking back towards her camp with Daryl. Lori was making her way over to him, Ailene frowned curiously and looked a Dale with the same expression.

"I have no idea" he shrugged, frowning, "is Daryl alright? He seems to have removed himself"

"Yeah" Ailene sighed, running a hand down her face, "I think it's taken a toll on him, he cares more than he lets on"

"You're right there" Dale mirrored her sigh and turned to her with a sad expression, "I tried to stop Shane you know" he told her. "I took the guns from the RV, but he followed me"

"Dale, this isn't your fault" she laid a comforting hand on his shoulder, "you tried your best, it was always going to go down that way I think"

"Again, I think you're right" he looked at her with a small smile of amusement, "how did someone so young get so wise?"

"Ah you see, I'm actually one-hundred and four" she grinned at him, dropping her arm from his, "I just have great face cream"

Dale let out a small, genuine laugh, before his gaze shifted from her eyes to something behind him. She followed the look to find Lori storming back towards camp, returning from her visit with Daryl.

"I wonder what's wrong with her?" Dale mumbled with a frown, and Ailene scoffed.

"She _has_ just come from speaking with Daryl" she remarked, rolling her eyes.

"True" they watched her until she found herself back into camp, he then sighed, "Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about Shane"

"Why?" she put her hands on her hips and faced him, "what's happened now? Other than the 'let's release the night of the living dead out into the field' debacle"

"I think he's dangerous" he commented, "he's losing it, comparing himself to Rick, I'm worried he'll do something even more reckless"

"I think he's done the most reckless thing he can do?" she peered at him, confused.

"Nope I don't think so" he shook his head "I-I" Dale paused and sighed, "I think he killed Otis"

"What?" Ailene exclaimed, it couldn't be true could it? She had heard about the man whom gave his life to save Carl.

"Well he could handle walkers, couldn't he?" Dale told her, and she nodded, when she had tried to control the walker before, it was extremely difficult.

"He managed to get them in the barn" she reasoned, "tough job to do it alone"

"Exactly" he confirmed, "I think Shane shot him to make his escape easier"

"That's a really strong accusation without proof, Dale" she groaned, "I don't like the guy, but murder? That's another level"

"Why did he have Otis' gun?" Dale debated.

"He had his gun?" this was different.

"I believe so" he confirmed, "anyway, it's in his character, you saw what he did to those walkers, it's only a matter of time before he starts doing that to people"

Ailene gulped and looked away from him, trying to process what he was saying to her. Could Shane really be a killer? She didn't think so.

But she was looking at this from her normal-world perspective, she had blinders on that didn't apply here. This was the apocalypse and none of the old-world ruled applied here- she had to toughen up and come to the realisation that actually some people were just as dangerous as the dead ones.

* * *

"Hey, Daryl" Ailene called to him, walking away from camp. She'd spent the evening with Carol, talking about books, trying anything to distract the kind woman, and herself from the Shane-theory the sleuth of the group, Dale, had spoken to her about. "Are you coming to the house for din-" she stopped when she saw he was already roasting some kind of small creature.

"Nah I'm good" he told her, and she frowned putting her hands on her hips, an all-too familiar pose she found herself in these days.

"Come on in" she shrugged, "ya know Rick isn't back from town yet- they should have managed to fetch Hershel by now"

"They can look after themselves" Daryl grunted in response, not really looking at her.

"I know you care" she told him plainly, "but if you're just going to pull this bullshit tonight then fine, I'll leave you too it"

"What bullshit?" he growled slightly, making her shake her head with a smile.

"I'll save you some bread" she shrugged and turned on her heel back towards the house, but to her surprise Carol was running towards them.

"We can't find Lori" she told Ailene, and they both looked at Daryl.

"Do you know where she is?" Ailene asked him, knowing that he'd seen her that day.

"That dumb bitch must have gone out looking for him" Daryl grumbled, not looking at either of them.

"What?" Carol asked, as she shared a worried glance with Ailene.

"She asked me to go" Daryl informed them, "I told her I was done being an errand boy" Ailene winced, Daryl had been out looking for poor Sophia, she hoped Carol didn't think he regretted it.

"Daryl, why didn't you say something?" Ailene accused, annoyed at his callousness. He didn't say anything and Carol sighed, walking off before pausing and looking at their tent, realising he was pulling away from them all, she turned back to look at him.

"Don't do this" she pleaded with him slightly, "I've already lost my girl"

"Yeah" Daryl got up from his seat angrily, "That wasn't my problem neither"

Ailene gasped, taken aback that he would be so cruel to a woman who had lost her child the very same day. Empathy swilled within her as she saw Carol's face as Daryl stepped past her and towards the tent. She shook her head and looked down at the ground, Carol walked away from their camp, making her way back to the rest of the group.

Ailene lost her temper slightly, she didn't want to be around Daryl when he was being like this, storming past him, she went into the tent.

"What ya doin'?" he half-yelled at her.

"What does it look like?" she exclaimed, trying to stuff her essentials into her rucksack and grabbing her sleeping bag, "I know that you're hurting, but you can't lash out at people, especially people who care about you"

"Nobody cares, Ailene" he retorted, angrily, "nobody in this group gives a shit, I almost die, and no one cares"

"You know that's not true" she sighed, looking at him, the fire was casting a changing shadow across his face.

"Huh" he scoffed, turning around, she dropped her stuff and moved towards him.

"Carol cares about you, Rick does, Dale, so does Glenn" she reasoned with him, "I do"

"You think I give a shit if you care?" he yelled, rounding on her, "why the hell would I? You just show up here all cheerful like the world hasn't gone to shit and expect everyone to look after you?"

"No, I-" Ailene tried to interject.

"You're just a problem, get outta my way, I'm sick of you!"

Ailene just stared at him for a moment, before nodding, turning and walking away from him.

* * *

"Beth?" Ailene walked into the girl's room, Maggie right behind her. There was no response, the room was dark except a small candle next to her bed. Ailene took in the sight of an extremely pale Beth, she was staring at the ceiling, she exchanged a worried look with Maggie. The older sister had come to find her, worried about her little sister and the fact that her father and boyfriend were missing. Ailene had been pacing the porch with Angela, not wanting to interfere with Carl and the recently returned Lori, so they had been out there, whilst Dale kept watch for walkers and any sign of their missing members.

Ailene had tried to make peace with Shane, and it had gone better than expected, she had brought him some food from the abandoned meal in the kitchen. He had accepted it with a grateful expression and had even apologised for what he had said to her, this she was relieved at- they agreed to have a fresh start.

"Beth?" Ailene called again as she sat next to the girl's bed, hoping for any kind of response but again, nothing.

"She's been like this since she collapsed earlier" Maggie informed her. Ailene nodded, but didn't say anything else, Maggie sat down in the seat next to hers, visibly concerned.

"I'm sure they'll make it back okay" Ailene tried to reassure her, "They might have just got a flat tyre or something"

"Lori crashed her car" Maggie replied glumly, looking down at her hands.

"I know but that was an accident, she must have swerved to avoid something"

"I think she said something about a walker" Maggie replied, reaching around Ailene to get herself a glass of water.

"Today was a really bad day" Ailene mumbled, "I'm sorry your family had to go through that"

"In all honesty, I think it needed to be done" she shrugged, "It shouldn't have happened like that, and I don't like that Shane guy" she sighed and shook her head, "But Dad sees now, what they are, we all do"

"Hopefully, we'll be able to defend the farm a lot better now" Ailene smiled, "Things will get better- I think there will be less of them through the winter"

"Because of the chill?" Maggie quirked an eyebrow, "yeah I think you're right"

"Maggie?" Beth's voice croaked from her bed, "Ailene?"

"Yeah we're here" Maggie sat forward and Ailene took Beth's hand with one of hers and gave her a glass of water with the other. Maggie helped the blonde girl sit up, and with that she took a small drink.

"Jimmy's been asking after you" Ailene told her weakly, not really knowing how to break the silence, Beth rolled her eyes before shrinking down in the bed again.

"Dad?" she asked, looking at them both.

"Still not back yet" Maggie told her half-sister, "but they will be"

"Yeah they won't be much longer" Ailene smiled at her.

"How do you know?" Beth exclaimed, the loudest her voice could muster, "what's the point in carrying on? This is it for life?! Then I don't want to"

"Beth don't say that" Ailene told her, "look we don't have to just survive, we can live"

"Huh" Beth scoffed and turned away from her.

"I don't want you thinking like that" Maggie interjected.

"Beth, all the people that we lost" Ailene shifted, uncomfortable, "we can't give up- we owe it to them to survive and live, and try-" she took a gulp, "try and be happy"

"Happy?" Beth repeated, her expression looked as if the word left a sour taste in her mouth, "how can you even think that is possible?!"

"It is Beth" Maggie told the girl.

She didn't speak to them anymore, just rolled over and went to what they thought was sleep. They sat there in silence for quite a while, before Maggie broke it.

"What's Europe like?" she asked Ailene, quietly.

"Um well, I've never been anywhere but Ireland" she half-whispered back, "but the country is beautiful"

"You never travelled?"

"No" she sighed, "could never afford it, but I had a jar in my house- I was saving up to go to Italy with my sisters"

"Are they?" Maggie asked tenderly, trying not to upset her, Ailene just looked down at her hands.

"I don't know" she replied, her voice weaker than she realised, "I don't know about anything"

"I'm sorry" Maggie put her hands on hers.

"I'm glad I met you" Ailene smiled, "your family are so kind"

"I'm glad you found this place" Maggie slightly laughed, "I'm glad you're here"

"What were you and Beth like as kids?" she asked, smiling.

"Drove our daddy crazy" they laughed.

"Sounds like me and my sisters" Ailene smiled to the pretty woman.

"Beth's always been the innocent one" she smiled, her eyes filling with tears slightly, "the good one, Daddy's little girl"

"My, younger, older sister was like that" she laughed a little, "she was the prettiest out of all of us, gorgeous long red hair, she would just click her fingers and Dar would come running"

"What did she do?" she asked, "before all of this?"

"She was a singer" Ailene admitted, "we could all play guitar and sing, our mother taught us when we were young"

"That's nice" Maggie said, warmly, "Beth loves singing, she's real good"

"I bet" Ailene smiled over to the blonde girl who was laid on the bed in a catatonic state, "we should do some singing together sometime, huh, Beth?"

They looked at her sadly, but she made not movement, her eye were open and she stared up to the ceiling.

"You had another sister?" Maggie, coughed, looking at her sister.

"Yes, the oldest out of the three of us" she smiled at the reminder of the older sister, "she was dark-haired like me and our dar" she smiled, "she was a writer, she wrote historical fiction- it was good"

"What were their names?" Maggie asked, Ailene didn't like the way that she asked in past-tense.

"Briana, the writer" Ailene smiled, "Eithne, the singer"

"They're beautiful"

"They are beautiful" she smiled, "I miss them"

* * *

Ailene blinked herself awake, shifted in the chair she was sat by Beth's bed, the sun was up- she'd been there for the rest of the night. Looking next to her, she saw Maggie was still asleep, so she manoeuvred carefully out of her chair and padded across the room to the door.

She made her way to the kitchen, where she was greeted by a concerned Patricia, she was making some coffee.

"Morning" she smiled at the woman, "what time is it?" she asked her, taking the mug she handed her gratefully.

"About quarter to six" the woman replied, "is she still the same?"

"She spoke a bit last night, but then went back to how she was before" Ailene sighed, a deep frown of concern over the girl set in her face.

"I should go and look in on them" Patricia told her, "I think some of your group are getting ready to head into town"

"Ah okay" she nodded, looking at the door, "thank you"

Ailene walked out of the house and found Daryl near the porch putting his jacket on, he looked up to her as she descended the stairs.

"Morning" she smiled, trying to get over whatever he'd yelled at her last night, he frowned out of what she thought was confusion.

"Morning" he eyed her suspiciously and she handed him her half-drunken mug of coffee. He took it, still confused, but drank it all the same.

"I'm coming out with you" she informed him, he took a breath to argue, "No arguments" his mouth closed, and he continued to drink, before putting the mug on the porch.

"Ailene, look about last night" he started, but she shook her head.

"Let's just write yesterday off, it was a shitty day" she shrugged, putting her hands in her pockets.

"Okay" he agreed, looking at her like he wanted to say something else, but they were interrupted by Shane.

"Ailene, you coming with us?" he asked, obviously trying to be nicer to her.

"Yeah" she told him, not bothering to ask him for permission.

"Great" he nodded to her before walking over to the car they were taking out. Ailene pulled a funny face at Daryl, and shrugging, followed Shane to the car. They packed the weapons into the car and Shane turned to give Ailene the handgun she had used the day previously, she unclipped the magazine and checked it.

"Guys" Andrea drew their attention, but Ailene's was on the truck racing up the long driveway into the farm. She squinted, it certainly looked like Hershel's truck, she pulled Daryl's arm, even though he was already looking.

Her and Daryl walked towards the moving vehicle's path, but Ailene stopped.

"I count four" she turned to him, "am I being dopey or something?"

"You really want me to answer that?" he grunted at her with a small grin, she smiled and rolled her eyes.

"Dad!" Carl called, running into his father's arms, Ailene was relieved to see them back safe, but she was concerned about their newest member.

"Good to see you back" Ailene nudged Hershel's arm, as he was side-lined by Maggie, happy to see Glenn. Hershel smiled at her and she took in his appearance, seeing the blood on his shirt. "That's not yours is it? Are you hurt?"

"I'm just fine" he told her, patting her shoulder. "Patricia, prepare the shed for surgery" he told the older woman, marching towards the house.

"Who the hell is that?" T-Dog pointed to the car, Ailene walked to his side, following his finger to the man in the truck.

"That's Randall" Glenn informed them, in his usual nonchalant way.

"Randall looks a bit out of it" Ailene called back to Glenn, "is Randall a new friend?"

"Randall most certainly is not" Rick told her.

"Lovely" she sighed, walking towards the truck with the rest of the group. Randall was blindfolded, she frowned and looked at Rick, who was stood beside her.

"I didn't want him seeing where we were" he muttered to her, and she nodded, Rick was someone who couldn't leave someone behind if they were hurt.

"You should go and get something to eat" she told Rick, who looked positively drained. He nodded slowly, eyeing Shane across the car, she noticed it. "I'll watch Randall before Hershel sees to him, okay?"

"Alright" he looked at her, still torn, "okay- when he's finished I think we need a group meeting"

The group had finished peering at the injured man, so had made their way inside, Ailene leant on the car, the open window next to her. Randall was in a bad way- he had a large wound on his leg from something and the bleeding had soaked his trousers.

"Who do you think he is?" Carol asked her, making her jump slightly.

"I have no clue" she replied, frowning at the man before turning to look at Carol, "how are you doing?"

"Just fine" Carol told her with a look that suggested that she was not, but she was pushing it down. Ailene nodded, she was learning to do the same- she had to. "I found this for you- I suppose you might need it" she handed her a holster for her handgun, it would clip onto her belt next to her knife holster, Ailene sighed, and took it.

"You know, in Britain, Ireland- they don't carry guns" she mumbled, "there's probably a lot more dead there- than here"

"Your family?" Carol asked, squinting in the sun at her.

"Yeah, probably" she shrugged, "I don't know"

"That's the worst part" the woman shifted, "not knowing" Ailene looked at her, curiously, "when you know you can deal with it, process it, and try and forget it"

"You don't have to forget it, do you?" they weren't talking about Ailene's family anymore.

"It helps" Carol shrugged, "it helps me"

Ailene nodded, giving Carol a small smile, reaching and touching her on the arm. Dale wandered over to them, his rifle over his shoulder, Ailene smiled at the old man.

"From what Glenn said, he seems to be one of a group that ambushed them when they were out" he informed to two of them, Ailene frowned and looked at Carol.

"What are we going to do with him?" Carol asked, looking at the man.

"I don't know, but I doubt he can stay here" Dale replied, shaking his head.

"This is a mess" Ailene sighed, just as Hershel and Jimmy came storming out of the house.

"We need to get him into the shed" Hershel instructed Jimmy, and Ailene stepped forward to help. They eased Randall out of the truck and put his arms around their shoulders, he half-limped with them, groaning as his injured leg caught on Jimmy's.

They brought him into the shed, where there was a make-shift hospital bed set up, with an IV ready. They placed him on the bed carefully and once the door was closed behind Hershel and Patricia, Ailene removed the blindfold from Randall.

"Hi Randall" she greeted him with a smile, he grimaced back, "you know Hershel here" she gestured behind her to the vet rolling up his sleeves, "he's going to sort you out"

"That's right" Hershel muttered from behind her, Ailene turned to face him.

"You okay here?" she asked, looking at Jimmy and Patricia too.

"We'll be just fine" he told her, "go on in and get some food"

"Alright, shout if you need anything" she told him, before leaving him to work on Randall's leg.

* * *

The group meeting had been tense, Shane's change to good mood had dissipated, and it had ended in a shouting match with Rick and then poor Hershel. Ailene stood near the back, next to Daryl, she hoped that Rick's plan would work and that drastic measures taken by Shane would not have to be used.

"You okay?" T-Dog snapped her out of her worrying, she looked at him with a smile.

"Yeah" she muttered, "how about you?" she asked, as they walked out of the house, following most of the group that had already left.

"Not bad" he nodded, "how about some food?"

"Ooh you know how to sweet talk a lady, don't you?" she laughed with him, walking over to the campfire that Carol had started.

"What do you think is going to happen with this guy?" he asked her, as they eased down into a couple of camp chairs.

"I really don't know" Ailene sighed, "I don't want to think about it" she winced.

"Yeah, I get the feeling he won't walk away from this" he added, and Ailene couldn't help but let out a small laugh.

"Yeah, cause of his gammy leg" she grinned and then shook her head, "sorry that's too dark"

"I think we're past the shame of dark humour, don't you?" he said pointedly, and she nodded with a smile.

"You're right" she smiled, heaving herself up out of her chair and deciding to get some granola bars, she threw one to T-Dog, "I'm just going to check in on Daryl" she told him.

She made her way out of camp and walked towards where Daryl's tent was set up, the sun was climbing in the sky, making its way to midday, but the air was getting cold.

"Daryl?" she called, looking into the tent, but he wasn't there.

"Yeah?" his voice came from behind her, making her jump slightly.

"Oh, hey" she greeted, "here" she threw him a granola bar, "I think I left my jacket here, it's getting a bit cold now"

"Uh help yourself" he gestured to the tent, "you sleep in the house last night?"

"Yeah, by accident" she told him "I was sat with Beth, she's in shock I think" she ducked into the tent retrieving her jacket and sliding it on, "My neck's all achy from sleeping in the chair, swear I drooled at some point as well"

"Nice" he muttered, grimacing at her, "well if you haven't found anywhere to sleep, I don't see why you have to go anywhere"

"Change of heart there Daryl Dixon?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips, smiling at him.

"Yesterday was shitty, right?" he grunted, and she nodded.

"Do you think they're going to kill that guy?" Ailene asked, looking at him. Daryl had a deep frown set on his face as he stared back at her, before braking eye contact and looking at his shoes.

"Yeah" was all he said, she sighed.

"What was the point in saving him in the first place?" she threw her arms up exasperated, "it's cruel"

"I think Rick will try anything before he does that" he offered, stepping towards her.

"But ultimately there will be no option but to kill him?" she rolled her eyes, "that's messed up"

He didn't say anything, he just turned and looked back at the house, most of the group were sat around in and out of their tents, having some rest bite whilst the man recuperated.

"I'm going out to hunt" he informed her, he eyed her quickly and paused.

"I'll come" she offered with a smile, "I'd like to learn more" He didn't argue with her and waited as she retrieved her machete from the tent.

Ailene walked slightly behind Daryl for quite a while, trying to be quiet and keeping an eye out for danger. She let her mind drift to the future, would she always be stuck in the world of the walking dead? Was this actually just a dream, or was her old life a dream? What happened if she died here, would she die in the world she knew as well? And did she really like Daryl as much as she thought?

So caught up in her thoughts, she hadn't noticed that Daryl had stopped, she smacked straight into the back of him with an 'oof', it knocked her backwards.

"Seriously?" he turned around to look at her with a slightly angry expression.

"Sorry" she looked at him sheepishly, "I wasn't paying attention"

"No shit" he muttered with a deep frown, but she grinned at him until his serious face dissipated and he let out a small laugh. "Look at these tracks here" he gestured in front of him at the ground, something had been through there, something fairly large. They were a good few miles out of camp, with only one squirrel to show for their trip, and the discovery of those tracks was worrying.

"Humans came through here?" she asked, unsure if her judgement was correct.

"Right" he confirmed her concerns, "you see the disturbance, its not dragging like walkers"

"Yeah" she agreed, looking around, "there's quite a lot of disturbance, you think there was a lot of them?"

"Maybe" he grunted, crouching, "or people in and out" Ailene became slightly nervous, her ears pricked at any sound she could make out, and she looked around, her grip tightening on the hilt of her machete.

"It might be the group that attacked Rick and Glenn?" she asked, hoping she wasn't right.

"You could be right" he told her, "from what they said, they were part of a larger group"

"And they seem to be the only ones in the area" she offered to their musings.

"Seems so" he agreed, getting up and standing next to her, looking around also.

Their attentions were focused behind them when they heard a twig snap, they stood silently until they heard the gargling and growling of a walker. It stumbled its way into view and Ailene let out a breath she hadn't know she was holding and she rolled her eyes.

"I've got it" she told him, walking towards the thing, getting a better grip of her machete. As she moved towards it, its growls got louder but she thought she heard something else, like a shout. She swung her large knife and buried it in the head of the walker, its growls ceased and then she was sure- there was a struggle going on back where she had come from. Her immediate thought was to run to see if Daryl needed help- but then she heard a voice she didn't recognise.

"Where's that pretty girl you was with, huh?" a gravelly voice came from where Daryl had been, Ailene was shocked and shrunk back behind a tree. She carefully poked her head around it to see if she could see what was going on, there were two men, one was holding Daryl's crossbow and the other was stood aiming a gun at his face- that man was doing the talking. "She'd be a happy addition to our little group" he sneered, and Ailene shuddered, _what a prick_.

Just as she was mentally scolding the dickhead with the gun and also trying to figure out how the hell she was going to sort this shit out.

That's when a hand grabbed her from behind, over her mouth, pulling her backwards.

"Found her" a cold voice, belonging to the man behind her, called out to his disgusting friends.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! Bit of a filler chapter, more happens in the next one**

 **Please let me know what you think!**


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